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Captain John Smith. 



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mSrORIGAL CLASSIC READINGS.— No. 2. 



k HISTORY 



OP THE 



Settlement of Virginia. 




BY 



Capt. JOHN SMITH. 



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Gov. Thomas Hutchinson. 

5. Discovery and Exploration of the Mississii pi Valley. 

John Gilmary Shea. 

6. Champlain and His Associates. Fkancis Parkman. 

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N>> Captain John Smith. 

^ ^ BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH. 

Oaptaii^ JoHiq- Smith was born in Willonghby, Lincolnshire, 
England, in 1579, and on the death of his parents, when he was 
about thirteen years of age, he was left with a competent fortune, 
but his guardians, regarding his estate more than himself, gave 
him full liberty and no money. At the age of fifteen he was 
bound as apprentice to the greatest merchant in his part of the 
country, but, because of Smithes love of adventure and his disap- 
pointment at not being sent to sea at once, he ran away and did 
not see his master for eight years. 

He went as an attendant into France, and on again returning 
to England, received ten shillings, of money already belonging to 
him, to relinquish all claims in his deceased father's estate. Go- 
ing back to France he served as a soldier in that country, and af- 
terwards in the Low Countries. In 1599 he embarked for Scotland, 
where he expected, through letters that had been given him, to 
obtain a place at court, but failing in this he returned to AYil- 
loughby, his native place, and there built himself an isolated 
lodge, and devoted his attention to the study of the arts of war 
and of horsemanship. 

Again becoming restless, he went into the Netherlands, where 
he was duped by four French rogues to sail for France, only to 
be robbed of all his baggage, and finally to be landed with but a 
single piece of gold in his pocket, so that he was forced to sell 
his cloak to pay his passage. Pitying friends afforded the means 
to meet immediate needs and to resume his wanderings. It was 
not long after this that he met one of the rogues, and easily van- 
quished him in single combat. 

He embarked for Italy, but the pilgrim passengers from the 



4 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

provinces, on their way to Rome, took so great offense to him be- 
cause of his nationality that they threw him overboard. Reach- 
ing a desert island he hailed a ship, which had sought refuge 
from the storm, and was taken aboard. According to his own 
account, Smith so won the favor of the captain that he easily got 
passage through to the Adriatic, where, meeting with a Venetian 
argosy, a fight ensued and resulted disastrously to the argosy 
and her cargo, half of which was seized. Smith was landed with 
four hundred and fifty pounds (£450) more than he had when he 
was picked up. He therefore improved the opportunity of trav- 
eling through Italy and of going to Rome. It was while on 
these travels that he met in Austria with a baron whose regiment 
he joined on an expedition to Turkey, where he proved himself 
so ingenious in devising stratagems, which were most successful 
on two occasions, that he was soon made captain of horse. On 
another occasion he improvised a very effective bomb, which 
brought sad havoc to the Turks. 

During one long and tedious siege the Turks in derision sent 
the following challenge : '' That to delight the ladies, who did 
long to see some court-like pastime, the lord Turbashaw did defy 
any captain that had command of a company who durst combat 
with him for his head." 

After much discussion the challenge was accepted, and Captain 
Smith Avas chosen by lot to champion the British. At the first 
charge his lance passed through the head of his adversary, who 
fell dead. This death so enraged a friend of Turbashaw, that he 
at once sent a challenge, which Smith in turn accepted. The 
Turk was shot from his horse, and his head, horse, and armor taken 
as prize. After this Smith sent a challenge to any Turk who 
would meet him. It was accepted, and Smith was again the victor. 

In 1602 Smith was found wounded after the battle of Rotten- 
ton and taken prisoner. A short time afterwards he was sold as 
a slave and sent to Constantinople. Thence he was taken from 
court to court in Tartary. His head w^as shaved ^' so bare as his 
hand," a great ring of iron was riveted about his neck, and a hair 
coat was put on him, During all these experiences Smith care- 



OAPTAm JOHN- SMITff. 5 

fully noted the manners and customs of the people, their diet, 
clothing, houses, treatment of slaves, feasts, religion, and con- 
duct in war. After a year's captivity, in revenge for cruel treat- 
ment, he beat out his master's brains with a ^^ threshing bat" 
while working in the field. Then realizing his desperate strait, 
he donned his master's clothing, hid the dead body under the 
straw, filled his knapsack with corn, and mounting his horse started 
into the desert. After traveling many days Smith reached a 
Muscovite garrison on the river Don. The governor used him 
kindly. After this he made a thorough tour of Europe, turned 
his course through the heart of Europe, crossed to Africa, and 
then back to Portugal. In 160-4 he returned to England on c 
man-of-war. 

Of Smith's adventures in America the abstracts to be found in 
this book will give a fair account. However improbablj^ it may 
seem, w^e can hardly deny that it is consistent with the story 
given of Smith's earlier wanderings through almost every part of 
the then knoAvn world. 

Having considered Smith as an adventurer, it remains to speak 
of his writings, which were but the narratives of his adventures. 
Our chief interest in them springs from the fact that he was the 
first contributor to American literature; and further, that the sub- 
jects which he chose are the first records of the first American 
settlement. 

Though quite a prolific writer, only three of Smith's books 
were written in America. The first, ^^ A True Relation of Vir- 
ginia," was written within the fii-st thirteen months after the 
settlement of the A^irginia colony, and was sent to London, where 
it was published in 1608. The character of this work may be 
judged from the selections which are given in this book. 

It was not long after the publication of "A True Relation" 
that Smith was made Governor of Virginia. As such he was re- 
sponsible to the London Company, who had secured the patent 
to the new territory and had spent money for its colonization. 
Becoming somewhat impatient at not receiving large and imme- 
diate dividends from their investment, the proprietors sent a 



6 CAPTAI N JOHN SMITH. 

• 

letter of inqiii]-y in the form of seven questions to the Governor. 
The questions called forth seven categorical answers, and these 
answers comprise Smith's second contribution to American lit- 
erature. By the same vessel which conveyed Smith's letter to his 
company in London he sent tlie manuscript for his third Ameri- 
can work, entitled ''A Map of the Bay and the Rivers, with an 
annexed Relation of the Countries and Nations that inhabit them." 
As its title indicates, the book is devoted to the topography, cli- 
mate, vegetation, and inhabitants, all of which are graphically de- 
scribed, as may be judged from reading the selection on ^^ The 
Natural Inhabitants./' The book was not printed until 1612. 
All of Smith's writings are marked by the same spirit of bold ro- 
mance which characterized his life. 

In the Fall of 1609, Smith, probably at the suggestion of the 
London proprietors, returned to England, where his further 
services as one of the Virginia Colony were dispensed with. 
'' Smith thus disappeared from the stage of affairs in Virginia, but 
he had played a great part in the first scenes of American history, 
and his character and subsequent career deserve some notice." 
In 1614 he made a voyage of exploration, of which a map of the 
New England coast from the Penobscot River to Cape Cod is the 
result. In 1615 he sailed with a colony for settlement in New 
England. 

On the voyage he was captured by a French pirate and taken as 
a prisoner to Rochelle, and though he soon made his escape to 
England he never again left that country. Until his death in 
1631, his interest in the colonizing of America was unflagging. 

" So snapped the chords of a stout heart, and a remarkable hfe ended. 
The character of the man must have appeared from his career. He was 
brave as his sword, full of energy, impatient of opposition, and had all the 
faults and virtues of the dominant class to which he belonged. His en- 
durance was unshrinking, and his life in Virginia indicated plainly that he 
had enormous recoil. He was probably never really cast down, and seems 
to have kept his heart of hope, without an effort, in the darkest hours, 
when all around him despaired. He is said to have been cordial and 
winning in his manners, and even his critics declared that he had 'a 
prince's heart in a beggar's purse ;' it is equally certain that he was im- 



CAPTALV JOHN SMITH. 7 

patient of temper, had large self-esteem, and was fond of applause. He 
seems to have spent his last years in London, industi-iously engaged on his 
histories. He was buried under the chancel of St. Sepulchre's Church, 
and on the slab above his head was carved his shield, with three Turks' 
heads engraved thereon, and the following inscription :" * 



To THE LIVING MEMORY OF HIS DECEASED FrIEND, CaPTAIN 

John Smith, who departed this mortal 

LIFE ON THE 21. DaY OF JUNE, ]631. 

Here lies one conquer'd that hath conquer'd kings, 
Subdu'd large Territories, and done things 
Which to the World impossible would seem. 
But that truth is held in more esteem. 

Shall I report his former service done 
In honor of his God and Christendom : 
How that he did divide from pagans three, 
Their heads and lives, types of his chivalry : 
For which great service in that climate done, 
Brave Sigismundus (King of Hungarion) 
Did give him as a Coat of Arms to wear, 
Those conquer'd heads got by his sword and spear ? 

Or shall I tell of his adventures since. 
Done in Virginia, that large Continence : 
How that he subdu'd Kings unto his yoke. 
And made those Heathen fly as wind doth smoke ; 
And made their land, being of so large a station, 
A habitation for our Christian Nation : 
Where God is glorified, their wants suppli'd, 
Which else for necessaries might have di'd ? 

But what avails his Conquest, now he lies 
Inter'd in earth, a prey for worms and flies ? 
O may his soul in sweet Elysium sleep, 
Until the keeper that all souls doth keep. 
Return to Judgment, and that after thence, 
With angels he may have his recompense. 

Captain John Smith, sometime Governor 

OP Virginia, and Admiral op 

New England. 

* History of Virginia, by J. Esten Cooke. 



8 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

However Captain Smith's account of his own adventures may be re- 
garded by American writers and students of history, it has been deemed of 
sufficient importance in England to be published in The English Scholar's 
Library, the editor of which speaks as follows : 

"As it is our purpose to do justice to all sides of this fascinating subject, we have 
approached the present text perfectly free from any kind of partisanship. Inasmuch, 
however, as the accuracy of some of Captain Smith's statements has in this generation 
been called in question, it was but our duty to subject every one of the nearly forty 
thousand lines of this book to a most searching criticism; scanning every assertion of 
fact most keenly, and making the text, by the insertion of a multitude of cross-refer- 
ences, prove or disprove itself. 

" The result is perfectly satisfactory. Allowing for a popular style of expression, the 
text is homogeneous; and the nine books comprising it, though written under very 
diverse circumstances, and at intervals over the period of twenty -two years (1608-30), 
contain no material contradiction. Inasmuch, therefore, as, wherever we can check 
Smith, we find him both modest and accurate, we are led to think him so, where no 
such check is possible. 

" One cannot read the following, without seeing that John Smith was something more 
than a brave and experienced soldier. Not only in his modesty and self-restraint, his 
moderation and magnanimity, his loyalty to the king, affection for the church, and love 
for his country, did he represent the best type of the English gentleman of his day, but 
he was also a man of singular and varied ability. 

" Put all this beside the one single Pocahontas incident by which he is popularly 
remembered, and one sees that the real John Smith is a far greater man than the 
mythical one. 

" It is not too much to say, that had not Captain Smith strove, fought, and endured 
as he did, the present United States of America might never have come into existence. 
It was contrary to all probability that, where so many had succumbed already, the 
Southern Virginian Company's expedition of 1606-7 should have succeeded." 



Capt. Smith's Complete "Works, from which these selections have been 
made, is a volume of over eleven hundred pages, and contains an account 
of the author's adventures in many countries. Aside, therefore, from 
being too voluminous, the book gives much that would not be of interest 
to the student of American history. Therefore only such selections are 
here given as relate to events of the voyage to, and the final settlement 
at, Jamestown. The original text has been followed as nearly as possible; 
but, on account of the author's quaint narrative, it has been necessary, at 
times, to substitute language more intelligible to the class of readers for 
whom this book is intended. 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 9 

"The Virginia 'plantation,' as the old writers called it, began at a 
remarkable period. The year 1600 may be taken as the dividing line 
between two eras— the point of departure of a new generation on the un- 
tried journey into the future. Europe had just passed through the great 
convulsion of the Reformation, and this with the invention of printing had 
suddenly changed the face of the world. It is diliicult to speak of this 
change without apparent exaggeration. A mysterious voice had awakened 
the sleepers, and they had started up, shaking off the old fetters. 

"The nations of Europe were like blind men who have suddenly been 
made to see. Daring aspirations took possession of them, and the new 
ideas of the new age crowded into every mind, hurrying and jostling each 
other. 

" Men longed for new experiences, to travel and discover new coun- 
tries, to find some outlet for the boiling spirit of enterprise which had 
rushed into and overflowed the time. The adventurous sea voyages of the 
period were the direct outcome of this craving; suddenly a passion for 
maritime exploration had developed itself. 

"Magellan circumnavigated the world, and Sir Francis Drake doubled 
Cape Horn, coasted northward to the present Alaska, attempted the north- 
west passage, and finding it impracticable, crossed the Pacific, traversed the 
Indian Ocean, and returned to England by the Cape of Good Hope. 
Beyond the Atlantic was the virgin Continent, unexplored by Englishmen, 
awaiting brave hearts and strong hands. To a people so ardent and rest- 
less the prospect was full of attraction. 

" Virgina was the promised land, and they had only to go and occupy 
it." — John Esten Cooke: Virginia. 

"A new power was now to be enlisted in the service of colonization. 
Hitherto whatever had been done had been due to the energy and enter- 
prise of private men. It could hardly, however, be expected that any 
should be found to follow in the footsteps of Gilbert and Raleigh. The 
Muscovy and East India companies offered more encouraging examples. 
The former had achieved success beyond the scope of any individual. 
The colonies of Virginia had before them a later and more conspicuous 
precedent. In 1599 a small band of London merchants met together to 
discuss a corporate scheme of trade with the East. That meeting laid the 
foundation of the Empire in India. Their labors had also an indirect re- 
sult, trivial in comparison, yet not without importance. We can hardly 
doubt that the rapid success of the East India Company led the advocates 
of American colonization to adopt it as their model. The fate of each 
body was singularly at variance with its early promise. The East India 
Company at its outset did not aim at anything beyond trading voyages and 



10 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

the establishment of factories. The Virginia Company sought to found a 
colonial empire. The former took rank among the rulers of the earth and 
numbered princes among its vassals. The latter, even in its brief day of 
prosperity, was little more than a trading association." — Doyle: English 
Colonies in America. 

" Sir Walter Raleigh spent a large fortune in attempting to colonize Vir- 
ginia. He succeeded in directing the attention of his countrymen to the 
region which had kindled his own enthusiasm, but his colonies never 
prospered. Sometimes the colonists returned home, disgusted by the hard- 
ships of the wilderness. Once they were massacred by the Indians. When 
help came from England the infant settlement was in ruins. The bones of 
unburied men lay about the fields; wild deer strayed among the untenanted 
houses. Once a colony wholly disappeared. To this date its fate is 
unknown. 

" Sir Walter was enduring his long captivity in the Tower writing his 
' History of the World,' and moaning piteously over the havoc which prison- 
damps wrought upon his handsome frame. The time had now come, and 
his labors were about to bear fruit. The history of Virginia was about to 
open. It opened with meager promise. A charter from the King estab- 
lished a company whose function was to colonize, whose privilege was to 
trade. The company sent out an expedition, which sailed in three small 
vessels. It consisted of one hundred and five men. . . . 

" Happily for Virginia, there sailed with these founders of a new empire 
a man whom providence had highly gifted with fitness to govern his 
fellow-men. His name was John Smith. He was still under thirty, a 
strong-limbed, deep-chested, massively-built man. From boyhood he had 
been a soldier — roaming over the world in search of adventures, wherever 
hard blows were being exchanged. He w^as mighly in single combat. 
Once, while opposing armies looked on, he vanquished three Turks, and, 
like David, cut off their heads, and bore them to his tent. Returning to 
England when the passion for colonizing was at its height, he caught at 
once the prevailing impulse. He joined the Virginia expedition; ultimately 
he became its chief , " — Robert Mackenzie: America. 



PART I. 



I. 

INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE LONDON VIRGINIA COMPANY 
TO THE COLONISTS FOR THE INTENDED VOYAGE TO 
VIRGINIA. 

1606. 

As we doubt not that you will have especial care to observe the 
ordinances set down by the King's Majesty, and delivered unto 
you under the Privy Seal; so, for your better direction upon your 
first landing, we have thought good to recommend the following 
instructions : 

When it shall please God to send you to the coast of Virginia 
you shall make your best endeavor to find out a safe port in the 
entrance of some navigable river, making choice of such a one as 
runs farthest inland, and if you happen to discover rivers suit- 
able for harbors, and amongst them any one that has two main 
branches, if the difference be not great, make choice of that 
which bendeth most to the North-west,^ for in that way you shall 
soonest find the other sea. When you have made choice of the 
river on which you mean to settle, be not hasty in landing your 
victuals and munitions,^ but first let Captain Newport discover 
how far that river may be found navigable, that you may make 
selection of the strongest, most wholesome and fertile place; for 



' Northwest. — The Indians, in 1586, 
had tokl the English wondrous tales 
of gold at the head-waters of the 
Roanoke River, and that its source 
was so near the western ocean that 
the salt water would sometimes 



dash over into the clear fountains 
of the stream. These fables still 
influenced the London Company. 

2 Munitions. — Ammunition and 
military stores of all kinds. 



12 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



if you make many removes, besides losing time, you will greatly 
spoil your victuals and your casks, and will be to great trouble 
in transporting them in small boats. 

But if you choose your place as far up as a bark of fifty tons 
will float, then you may lay all your })rovisions ashore with ease, 
and receive the trade of all the countries^ about you in the land. 
Such a place you may perchance find a hundred miles from the 
river's mouth, and the farther up the better. For if you settle 
near the entrance, except it be on some island that is strong by 
nature, an enemy may approach you on even ground, and may 
easily puir you out; but if he be driven to seek you a hundred 
miles inland in boats, you shall from both sides of the river, 
where it is narrowest, so conquer him with your nmskets that he 
shall never be able to i)revail against you. 

And to the end that you be not surprised, as the French were 
in Florida,^ and the Spaniard in the same place by the French, 
you would do well to make this double provision. First, erect a 
little store at the mouth of the river that will lodge some ten 
men; with whom you may have a light boat, so that when any 
fleet is in sight the men may come with speed to give you warn- 
ing. Secondly, you must in no case suffer any of the natives to 
inhabit the country between you and the sea-coast; for you can- 
not so conduct yourselves that they w^ill not grow discontented 
with your habitation, and be ready to guide and assist any nation 
that may come to invade you. If you neglect this, you neglect 
your safety. 

When you have discovered as far up the river as you mean to 
plant yourselves, and landed your victuals and munitiol^s, you 
would do well to divide your six score men into three paifts, so 
that every man may know his charge; one part of them you may 
appoint to fortify and build your storehouse for victuals; of the 



''Trade of the countries, etc. — The 
merchant adventurers supposing the 
land to be divided among several 
Indian nations, and that their trade 
would be valuable. 



•*Pull you out. — Conquer and drive 
away. 

^Florida. — Referring to the attack 
by Meleudez. 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



IB 



other forty you may employ tliirty in preparing your ground and 
sowing your corn and roots; the remaining ten you must leave as 
sentinels at the haven's mouth. The third forty you may em- 
ploy for two months in exploring the river above you, and the 
country about you. Captain Newport and Captain Gosnold may 
take charge of these forty discoverers. 

When they espy any high lands or hills. Captain Gosnold may 
take twenty of the company to cross over the lands, and may 
carry a half-dozen pickaxes to try to find minerals. The other 
twenty may go by the river, and pitch up boughs upon the bank's 
side as a mark by which the other boats may follow them. You 
may also take with them a wherry/ such as is used here in the 
Thames, by which you may send back to the President for sup- 
plies without being driven to return for every small errand. You 
must observe, if you can, whether the river on which you settle 
springs out of mountains or out of lakes. If it be out of any 
lake, the passage to the other sea will be more easy; and it is 
likely enough that out of the same lake you shall find some 
spring which runs the opposite way towards the East India Sea. 

In all your passages you must take great care not to offend the 
natives, if you can avoid it, and employ a few of your company 
to trade with them for corn and all other lasting victuals if they 
have any. This you must do before they perceive that you 
mean to settle among them; for not being sure how your own 
seed will prosper the first year, you must avoid the danger of fa- 
mine, and so endeavor to obtain a store of the country corn.' 
Your discoverers that pass over land with hired guides must 
look well to it that they slip not from them; and for more secur- 
ity let them take a compass with them, and write down how far 
they go upon every point ^ of the compass; for in that country. 



6 Wherry. — A light, sliarp boat 
used in river or harbor for carrying 
passengers from place to place. 

"' The country corn. — Indian corn 
or maize. 



^ Upon every point — To make note 
of the number of miles traveled in 
each and every direction by the 
compass so as to easily retrace the 
journey. 



14 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



having no way nor path, you will hardly ever find a passage back 
if your guides desert you. 

And however weary your soldiers may be, let them never trust 
the country people to carry their weapons; for if they run from 
you with your shot, which alone they fear, they will easily kill 
you all with their arrows. And whenever any of your men shoot 
in their presence, be sure they may be chosen out of your best 
marksmen ; for if they see your learners miss what they aim at, 
they will think the weapon not so terrible, and therefore will be 
bold to assault you. Above all things, do not advertise the kill- 
ing of any of your men that the country people may know it, for 
if they perceive that they are but common men, and that with the 
loss of many of theirs they diminish any part of yours, they will 
make attacks upon you. If the country be populous, you would 
do well also not to let them see or know when any of your men 
are sick, as this also may encourage them to many enterprises. 

You must take especial care to choose a seat for habitation that 
shall not be overburdened with woods near your town: for all 
the men you have could not clear twenty acres a year; besides, it 
might serve for a covert^ for your enemies round about. Neither 
must you settle in a low or moist place, because it will prove un- 
healthful. You can judge of the good air by the people: for 
where the lands are low, the people are blear-eyed, and have 
swollen legs; but if the natives are strong and clean made, it is a 
true sign of a wholesome soil. 

You must draw up the pinnace,'" that is left with you, under 
the fort, and take her sails and anchors ashore, all but a small 
kedge" to ride by; lest some ill-disposed persons slip away with 
her. You must take care that your hired mariners do not mar 
your trade; for those that do not intend to settle will for a lit- 
tle gain, debase the value of exchange, and hinder the trade for- 



^ Covert. — Hiding-place. 

^0 Pinnace — A small vessel, navi- 
gated with oars and sails, and hav- 
ing generally two masts, rigged 
like those of a schooner. 



" Kedge. — A small anchor to hold 
a vessel while riding in a harbor or 
river. 



CAPTAIN JOEN SMITH. 15 

ever after, and therefore you must not admit or suffer any person 
whatsoever, other than such as shall be appointed by the Presi- 
dent and Council there, to buy any merchandise or other things 
whatsoever. 

It is necessary that all your carpenters and other like workmen 
first build your storehouse and those other rooms of public and 
necessary use before any house is set up for any private person; 
and though the workmen may belong to private persons, yet let 
them all work together first for the company and then for private 
men. And, as order is as cheap as confusion, it would be advis- 
able to set your houses even and by a line, so that your streets 
may have a good breadth, and be carried square about your mar- 
ket-place, and that every street may open into it; in order that 
from thence, with a few field-pieces, you may command every 
street throughout. You may also fortify the market-place if you 
think needful. 

You shall do well to send a perfect report by Captain Newport 
of all that is done; at what height you are situated, how far in- 
land, what commodities you find, what soil, woods, and their sev- 
eral kinds; and so of all other things. Suffer no man to return 
but by passport from the President and Council, or to write any 
letter of anything that may discourage otheis. Lastly, and 
chiefly, the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make 
yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your 
own, and to serve and fear God the Giver of all Goodness, for 
every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not planted 
shall be rooted out. 



16 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



11. 

THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENGLISH COLONY IN 
VIRGINIA. 

Taken- faithfully out of the Writings of Thomas 
Studly, Cape-Merchant, and Others. 

It might well be thought that a country so fair as Virginia and 
with a people so tractable would long ere this have been quietly 
possessed, to the satisfaction of the adventurers and to the per- 
petuating of their memory. But because all the world sees in it 
only a failure, the following Treatise shall give satisfaction to all 
impartial readers how the business hath been conducted; and no 
doubt they will easily understand how it came to pass that there 
was no ,better success in those proceedings. 

Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, the first mover of this planta- 
tion, for ma^ny years solicited many of his friends, but found small 
assistance. At last he prevailed with some gentlemen, as Master 
Edward Maria Wingfield, Captain John Smith, and divers others, 
but effected nothing till by their great care and industry it came 
to be undertaken by certain of the nobility, two gentry, and mer- 
chants, so that his Majesty by his letters patent (1606) gave com- 
mission for establishing councils, to direct here, and to govern 
and execute there. To do this, another year was spent; and by 
that time three ships were provided — one of one hundred tons, 
another of forty, and a pinnace of twenty. The transportation 
of the company was committed to Captain Christopher Newport, 
a man well acquainted with the western parts of America, as he 
had voyaged there more than once. Their orders for govern- 
ment were put in a box, not to be opened nor the governors 
known until they arrived in Virginia. ^ 

' The king's whim of conceaHng 1 lonial Council until the expedition 
in a sealed box the names of the Co- | should arrive in Virginia left the 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



17 



On the 19th of December, 1606, we set sail from Blackwall, 
but by unfavorable winds were kept six weeks in sight of Eng- 
land; all which time Mister Hunt/ our preacher, was so weak and 
sick that few expected his recovery. Although he was but ten 
or twelve miles from his habitation, and notwithstanding the 
stormy weather, or tlie scandalous imputations which some few, 
little better than Atheists, of the greatest rank amongst us, sug- 
gested against him, all could never force from him so much as a 
seeming desn-e to leave the business. 

We watered^ at the Canaries;* we traded with the savages at 
Dominica;^ three weeks we spent in refreshing ourselves 
amongst these West India Isles. In Guadaloupe^ we found a 
bath^ so hot, that in it we boiled pork as well as over the 
fire. And at the little isle called Monica^ we took from the 
bushes with our hands near two hogsheads full of birds in 
three or four hours.. 

Going from thence in search of Virginia, the company was not 
a little discomforted, seeing the mariners had three days passed 
their reckoning, and found no land; so that Captain RatclifPe 
(captain of the pinnace) rather desired to bear up the helm' to 
return to England, than make further search. But God, the 
guider of all good actions, forcing them by an extreme storm to 
huir all night, did drive them by his providence to their desired 



emigrants, in the interim, without 
an authorized head. Hence, natu- 
rally, their dissensions on the voy- 
age. 

"^ Mister Hunt. — Robert Hunt, a 
minister of the Church of England. 
He settled among the colonists and 
remained in the country, but how 
long he lived is not known. 

^ Watered. — Took a supply of fresh 
water on board the vessels to use 
during the voyage. 

•* Canaries. — A group of islands 



near the northwestern coast of Af- 
rica. 

^ Dominica,Guadaloupe, and Monica. 
— Islands among the West Indies. 

^ Bath. — A spring of hot water. 
, ' Bear up the helm. — To change the 
course of a ship when close-hauled, 
or sailing with a side wind, and make 
her run before the wind. 

^ To hull. — The nautical term for 
the sailing of a ship compelled by 
severe storms to take in all sails and 
to drive before the wind. 



18 



CAPTAIN JOHN- SMITH. 



port, contrary to all their expectations; for never any of them 
had seen that coast. 

The first land they made they called Cape Henry;^ where an- 
choring, Mister Wingfield, Gosnold, and Newport, with thirty 
others, foolishly imagining that the place was uninhabited, landed 
unarmed, and while recreating themselves on shore, were as- 
saulted by five savages, who hurt two of the English very dan- 
gerously. 

That night (26th April, 1G07) the box was opened and the or- 
ders read: in which Bartholomew Gosnold, Edward Wingfield, 
Christopher Newport, John Smith, John Ratclift'e, John Martin, 
and George Kendall were named to be tlie Council, and to 
choose a president amongst them for a year, who with the Coun- 
cil should govern. Matters of moment were to be examined by 
a jury, but determined by the major part of the Council, in which 
the President had two voices. " One and and all of these men, 
with the exception of Smith and Gosnold, were grossly incompe- 
tent. 



III. 
JAMESTOWN. 



1607. 



True EELATioiq" of such Occurrences of Note as have 

HAPPENED AT VIRGINIA, SINCE THE FIRST PLANTING OF 

THAT Colony. 

You shall understand that after many obstacles by tempests in 
the Downs' we arrived safely upon the southwest part of the 
great Canaries. Within four or five days after we set sail for 



9 Cape Henry. — Named for the 
Prince of Wales, eldest son of King 
James. 



1 Downs. — A road for shipping in 
the Eno-lish Channel. 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 19 

Dominica. The 2Gtli of April, the first land we made was Cape 
Henry, at the very mouth of Chesapeake Bay, which we were 
then little expecting, having by a cruel storm been blown to the 
northward. 

Anchoring in this bay, twenty or thirty men went ashore with 
the captain, and in coming on land were assaulted by certain 
Indians, who charged on them within pistol-shot. In this con- 
flict Captain Archer and Matthew Morton were shot; whereupon 
Captain Newport coming to their aid made a shot which the In- 
dians little respected, but having spent their arrows they retired 
without harm. 

At this place the box was opened, in which the Council for 
Virginia was nominated, and arriving at the place' where we are 
now seated, the Council was sworn, and the President elected, 
which for that year was Mister Edward Maria AVingfield. The 
situation chosen Avas a very fit place for the erecting of a great 
city, but about this some contention passed betwixt Captain Wing- 
. field and Captain Gosnold. Notwithstanding this, all our pro- 
visions were brought ashore, and with as much speed as might be, 
we went about our fortification. The twenty-second day of May, 
Captain Newport and myself, with others, to the number of twen- 
two persons, set forward to explore the river some fifty or sixty 
miles, finding it in some places broader and in some narrower; 
the country on each side was plain, high ground, with many 
fresh springs. 

The people in all places kindly treated us, feasting us with 
strawberries, mulberries, bread, fish, and other of their country 
provisions, whereof we had plenty. Captain Newport kindly 
requited their least favors with bells, pins, needles, beads, or 
glasses, which so pleased them that his liberality made them 
follow us from place to place, and always kindly to respect us. 
While staying to refresh ourselves on a little island, four or five 
savages came and described to us the course of the river; and 

2 Jamestown. — So called in honor of James I. The first permanent 
English settlement within the limits of the present United States. 



20 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



afterwards in our journey they often met us, and traded for 
such provisions as we had. He whom we supposed to be the 
chief king of all the rest most kindly entertained us, giving a 
guide to go with us up the river to Powhatan/ from which 
place their great emperor takes his name. 

But to finish this discovery we passed on farther, where with- 
in a mile we were intercepted by great craggy stones in the 
midst of the river, where the water falls so rapidly and with 
such violence that no boat can possibly pass. That night we re- 
turned to Powhatan; the next day we returned to the falls, leav- 
ing a mariner as pledge with the Indians for a guide of theirs. 
He that they honored for king followed us by the river. Cap- 
tain Newport repaid his kindness with a gown and hatchet; re- 
turning to Arsetecke,* we stayed there the next day to observe 
the latitude thereof, and then, with many signs of love, we 
departed. 

The next day the Queen of Agamatack' kindly treated us, her 
people being no less contented than the rest; and from thence we 
went to another place, where the people showed us the manner 
of their diving for mussels, in which they find pearls. 

One night, passing some twenty miles from our fort the peo- 
ple, according to their former churlish condition, seemed little to 
like us. This gave us occasion to suspect some mischief at the fort, 
and therefore we repaired to the fort with all speed, where the 
first we heard was that four hundred Indians the day before had 
surprised and assaulted it. Had not God, by means of the ships, 
from which they shot with their ordinances and muskets, caused 
the Indians to retire, they would have entered the fort, where 
our own men were busy planting corn. 

With all speed we palisaded our fort ; for six or seven days 
we had alarms by ambuscades , and four or five of our men were 



3 Powhatan. — This place was within 
a mile of the falls, near the present 
site of Richmond. 

■^Arsetecke. — An Indian village, 
near the now famous " Dutch Gap.'' 



^ Agamatack. — The Queen of Ap- 
pomattox ; subject to Powhatan, 
yet of the same authority as any of 
the neio-hborins: chiefs. 



CAPTAIN JOHN S^IITH. 21 

cruelly wounded by being abroad. The Indian loss we know not, 
but, as they report, three were slain and some hurt. 

Captain Newport having set things in order, set sail for Eng- 
land the 22d of June, 1607, leaving provision for thirteen or 
fourteen weeks. The day before the ship^s departure, the king 
sent the Indian that had met us before in our discovery to assure 
us peace. Our fort was then palisaded round, and all our men 
in good health and comfort, although through some discontent it 
did not long continue. The President and Captain Gosnold, 
with the rest of the Council, were for the most part discontented 
with one another, in so much that things were not conducted 
with discretion, nor was business effected in such good manner, 
as wisdom for our own good and safety required. 

We were plagued with so much famine and sickness, that the 
living were scarce able to bury the dead. The chief cause was 
our want of sufficient and good victuals, with continual watch- 
ing, four or five each night at three bulwarks." We had great 
store of sturgeon only, and on this our men would so greedily 
surfeit, that it cost many their lives. The sack, aqua vit^/and 
other preservatives for our health, were kept only in the Presi- 
dent's hands, for himself and a few associates. Shortly after 
this time Captain Gosnold fell sick, and Avithin three weeks died. 
Captain Eatcliffe was then also very sick and weak, and though I 
also had suffered the same extremity, by God's assistance I had 
recovered. Kendall about this time, for divers reasons, was de- 
posed from the Council ; and shortly after it pleased God to 
move the Indians to bring us corn ere it was half ripe, though 
we rather expected they would destroy us. 

By the tenth of September there were about forty-six of our 
men dead, and Captain Wingfield had ordered the affairs in such 
a manner that he was gener,ally hated by all. With one consent, 
therefore, he was deposed from his Presidency, and Captain Eat- 
cliffe in turn was elected. Our provision was now within twenty 



^ Bulwarks. — The fort was built in 
the shape of a triangle, having a bul- 
wark at each corner, and four or 



five pieces of artillery mounted in 



hem. 



Aqua vitae. —Water of life. 



22 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

days of being spent, but the Indians brought us great store both 
of corn and bread ready-made. There also came such aoundance 
of fowls into the rivers, that they greatly refreshed our weak 
condition, and soon many of our weak men were able to go about. 
As yet we had no houses to cover us, our tents were rotten, and 
our cabins worse than nothing. Our best commodity was iron, 
which we made into little chisels. 

The sickness of the President and of Captain Martin con- 
strained me to be cape merchant,^ and to spare no pains in 
making houses for the company, who, notwithstanding our mis- 
ery, did not cease their malice, grudging, and muttering. As most 
of our chief men were now either sick or discontented, the rest 
were in such despair that they would rather starve and rot with 
idleness than be persuaded to do anytliing for their own relief 
without constraint. Our victuals being now within eighteen 
days of being S2:)ent, and the Indians' trade decreasing, I was 
sent to the mouth of the river, to an Indian town,® to trade for 
corn, and to try the river for fish. But our fishing did not avail 
by reason of the stormy weather. 

The Indians, thinking us nearly famished, with careless kind- 
ness offered us little pieces of bread and small handfuls of 
beans or wheat, in return for a hatchet or a piece of copper. In 
like manner I entertained their kindness, and in like scorn of- 
fered them commodities of little value ; but the children, or any 
that showed extraordinary kindness, I treated liberally with gifts 
of such trifles as well contented them. Though finding this 
cold comfort, I anchored before the town, and the next day re- 
turned to trade. In this time God (the absolute disposer of all 
hearts) altered their conceits, for now they were no less desirous 
of our commodities than we of their corn. Under pretence of 
fetching fresh water, I sent a man to see the town, their corn 
and force, and to try their intent, for they desired me to come 



*^ Cape Merchant. — Treasurer. On 
shipboard this name signilied the 
persoii in charge of the cargo ; it 



is similar to the modern "super- 
cargo." 
^ Indiaa towa, — Now Hampton. 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 23 

to their houses. Understanding their purpose, I visited them 
with four men. 

With fish, oysters, bread, and deer, they kindly traded with 
me and my men, being no less in doubt of my intent than I of 
theirs ; for I might with twenty men have well freighted a ship 
with corn. The town contained eighteen houses, pleasantly 
seated upon three acres of ground, half surrounded by a great 
bay of the river. The town Joined the mainland by a neck of 
land sixty yards long. With sixteen bushels of corn I returned 
towards our fort. On the way I encountered two canoes of Indi- 
ans, who came aboard. They were the inhabitants of a kingdom 
on the south side of the river, which is five miles wide and 
nearly twenty miles from the mouth. With these I traded, but 
as they had with them only their hunting provision, they re- 
quested me to return to their town, where I could load my boat 
with corn. After that I returned to the fort with nearly 
thirty bushels of corn, the very name of which gave great com- 
fort to our despairing company. 

Time was thus passing away, and as not over fourteen days' 
victuals were left, some motions were made about our President 
and Captain Archer going to England to procure a supply. In 
the mean time we had been fairly provided with houses, and our 
President and Captain Martin were now able to walk abroad. 
With much ado it was decided that the pinnace and barge 
should go to Powhatan to trade for corn. Lots were cast to see 
who should go in her : the chance was mine ; and while she was 
rigging, I made a voyage to Topohanack. '" There the women and 
children fled from their houses, but at last I drew them near. 
They dared not trade, though they had plenty of corn, and I had 
no commission to rob. 

On my return I traded with a churlish and treacherous na- 
tion, and having loaded ten or twelve bushels of corn, they tried 
to take our guns and swords by stealth, and as we seemed to dis- 
like it, they were ready to assault us. While standing upon our 

'° Topohanack.— An Indian village on the south side of th§ Jttmes River. 



24 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

guards in coasting the shore, some would come out of the woods, 
and with corn to trade. But lest we should be obliged either to 
endure overmuch wrong or directly to resort to revenge, we re- 
turned with ten bushels of corn. 

Though by God's assistance we obtained good store of corn, 
yet some bad spirits, not content with God's providence, still 
grew mutinous ; in so much that our President, having occasion 
to chide the blacksmith for some misdemeanor, the blacksmith 
not only swore at him, but also offered to strike him with some 
of his tools. For this rebellious act the smith was condemned 
by a jury to be hanged. On the ladder to the gallows he con- 
tinued very obstinate, as if hoping for a rescue ; but when he saw 
no other way but death for him, he became penitent, and de- 
clared a dangerous conspiracy, and so himself escaped. As princi- 
pal in this conspiracy. Captain Kendall was condemned by a jury, 
and shot to death. 

One day we went within three or four miles and hired a canoe, 
and two Indians to row us a-fowling. Though some wise men 
may condemn this as too bold and too indiscreet, yet if they 
well consider the friendship of the Indians in conducting me, 
the desolateness of the country, the probability of finding some 
lake, the malicious judges of my actions at James Town, and 
the desire to have something of worth to report, to encourage 
our adventurers in England, — these considerations might well 
have caused any honest mind to have done the like, as well for 
his own sake as for the public good. Having two Indians for 
my guides and two of our own company, I set forward, leaving 
seven men in the barge. 

I took one of the Indians with me to see the nature of the soil 
and to cross the bendings of the river; the other Indian I left 
with Mister Robinson and Thomas Emory, with their matches 
lighted,'^ and ordered them to discharge a gun for my retreat at 
the first sight of an Indian. Within a quarter of an hour I 

'' Matches lighted. — Their guns were mntcblocks^ licuce the uecessity 
for lighted matches. 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, 25 

heard a loud cry and a shouting of Indians, but no warning shot. 
Presently I was struck with an arrow on the right thigh, and 
soon I was environed by two hundred men. Thus surprised, I 
resolved to try their mercies: I cast my arms from me, till which 
time none dared to approach me. 

Having seized on me, they drew me out and led me to the 
king. I presented him with a compass dial, and described by 
my best means its use. He so amazedly admired this, that he 
suffered me to proceed in a discourse of the roundness of the 
earth, the course of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. With 
kind speeches and bread he requited me, and conducted me to 
the canoe, where John Robinson lay slain with twenty or thirty 
arrows in him, but Emory I saw not. 



TV, 

POCAHONTAS* 



The Indians conducted Smith in the following manner: Draw- 
ing themselves up in file, the king' was in the midst and all the 
pieces and swords were borne before him. Captain Sniith was led 
after him by three great savages, who held him fast by each arm, 
and on each side six Indians went in file with their arrows held 
ready on the bow-string. Arriving at the town' (which was but 
thirty or forty hunting houses made of mats, which they remove 
as they please, as we do our tents), all the women and children 
stared to behold him. The warriors first performed as well as 
could be, and on each flank were officers as sergeants to see them 
keep their orders. 

'The King. — Opechancanough, the I ^ Town. — Orapaks, about 12 miles 
brother of Powhatan. I east from the falls near Richmond. 

* Written by Thomas Studley, the first cape merchant in Virginia, and 
I. S. [John Smith]. 



26^ CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

They continued this exercise a long time, and then cast them- 
selves in a ring, dancing in several postures, and singing and 
yelling out fiendish notes and screeches. They were strangely 
painted, and each had his quiver of arrows, and at his back a 
club; on his arm a fox or an otter^s skin, or some such thing, for 
his shield. Their heads and shoulders were painted red with oil 
and pocones^ mingled together, which scarlet-like color made an 
exceedingly handsome show. Each had his bow in his hand, 
and the skin of a bird with her wings spread on his head; also a 
piece of copper, a white shell, a long feather, with a small rattle 
of a snake tied to it, or some such toy. All this while Smith 
and the king stood in the midst guarded, and after three long 
dances all departed. Smith was conducted to a long house, 
where thirty or forty tall fellows guarded him. 

Ere long there was brought to him enough venison and bread to 
have served twenty men. I think his appetite at that time was not 
very good. They put what he left in baskets and tied it over his 
head. About midnight they again set the meat before him. All 
of this time not one of tliem would eat a bite with him. The 
next morning they brought him as much more, and then they 
ate all the old, and reserved the new as they had done the other, 
which made him think they wanted to fat him to eat him. Yet 
in this desperate condition one brought him his gown to protect 
him from the cold, in return for some beads and toys which 
Smith had given him on his first arrival in Virginia. 

Two days after a man would have slain Smith for the death 
of his son. They had demanded of him to cure the young man 
then breathing his last. Smith told them that he had a water 
at Jamestown which would do it, if they would let him fetch 
it. They would not permit that, but made all the preparations 
they could to assault Jamestown, craving his advice, and offering 



2 Pocones — Is a small root which grows in the mountains. On being dried 
and beaten to powder it turns red, and this the Indians use for anointing 
and painting their heads and garments. They account it very precious, 
and of much worth. 



CAPTAIN JOUl^ SMITH. 



27 



him for recompense life, liberty, and land. On part of a table 
book* he wrote his ^^lan to them at the fort what was intended, 
how they should affright the messengers, and without fail should 
send him such things as he wrote for, and an inventory^ with 
them. The difficulty and danger of the mines, grettt guns, and 
other engines of which he told the savages, frightened them ex- 
ceedingly ; yet, according to his request, they went to James 
town, in as bitter weather as could be on account of frost and 
snow, and within three days returned with an answer. 

But when they were come to Jamestown they saw men sally^ 
out, as Smith told them they would, and they fled. In the 
night they came again to the place where he had told them 
they should receive an answer, and such things as he had prom- 
ised them. They found them accordingly, and returned with 
no small haste, and told, to the wonder of all that heard, that 
either he could divine,' or the paper could speak. Then they led 
Smith off upon the rivers Rapahanock and Potomac, and over 
other rivers, and back again by several nations, to the king^s 
habitation at Pamunkee, where they entertained him with 
most strange and fearful conjurations.* 

Not long after, early in the morning, a great fire was made in 
a long house, and a mat was spread on either side. On the one 
side they caused Smith to sit, and then all the guard went out of 
the house. And presently there came skipping in a great grim 
fellow, all painted over with coal, mixed with oil. Many snakes' 
and weasels^ skins stuffed with moss, and all tied together by 
their tails, met on the crown of his head in a tassel, and round 
about the tassel was a coronet of feathers. The skins huns" 
round about his head, back, and shoulders, and in a manner cov- 



^ Ta"ble book — A book on which 
anything' was written without ink. 
Siniihir to modern tablets. 

^ Inventory. — Meaning ? 

^ Sally. — To rush out suddenly, as 
a body of troops from a besieged 
place. 



''Divine.— To foretell by some 
superstitious or supernatural means. 

8 Conjurations. — A magical form of 
words ; an incantation ; an enchant- 
ment. 



28 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

ered his face. He had a fearful voice, and held a rattle in his 
hand. With most strange gestures he began his invocation, by 
surrounding the fire with a circle of meal; then three more such 
fiends came rushing in with like antics, painted half black, half 
red. Their eyes were painted white, and some red strokes along 
their cheeks. These fiends danced round about him a pretty 
long while, and then three more came in as ugly as the rest, 
with red eyes, and white strokes over their black faces. 

At last they all sat down right in front of him — three of them 
on the one hand and three on the other hand of the chief priest. 
Then all with their rattles began a song, after which the chief 
priest laid down fine wheat grains. Then straining liis arms and 
hands with such violence that he sweat, and his veins swelled, 
he began a short oration. At the conclusion they all gave a 
short groan; and then laid down three grains more. After that 
they began their song again, and then another oration, each time 
laying down as many grains as before, till they had twice encir- 
cled the fire. After this they took a bunch of little sticks pre- 
pared for the purpose, and still continuing their devotion, at the 
end of every song and oration, they laid down a stick between 
the divisions of corn. Neither he nor they ate or drank till 
night, and then they feasted merrily, with the best provisions 
they could make. 

Three days they used this ceremony; the meaning of it, they 
told him, was to know if he intended them well or not. The circle 
of meal signified their country, the circles of corn the bounds of 
the sea, and the sticks his country. They imagined that the 
world was flat and round, like a trencher,^ and that they were in 
the middle of it. After this they brought him a bag of gun- 
powder, which they carefully preserved till the next spring, to 
plant as they did their corn ; because they wished to be ac- 
quainted with the nature of that seed. 

The king's brother invited him to his house, whereto he bade 
him welcome, and as many platters of bread, fowl, and wild 

» Treacher. — A wooden dish, or platter, oii which meat was served. 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 29 

beasts as surrounded him. Not any of the Indians would eat 
with him, but would put away all that remained in baskets. On 
his return all the king's women and their children flocked 
about him for their part of the food, as it was a custom to be 
merry with such fragments. 

At last they brought Captain Smith to Powhatan, their em- 
peror. Here more than two hundred of those grim courtiers 
stood wondering at Smith as if he had been a monster, till Pow- 
hatan and his train put themselves in their best trim. Before a 
fire, and upon a seat like a bedstead, Powhatan sat covered with 
a great robe made of raccoon skins with all the tails hanging. 
On either hand sat a young servant of sixteen or eighteen years, 
and along on each side of the house two rows of men, and be- 
hiiid them as many women, with faces and shoulders painted 
red, many of their heads bedecked with the white down of birds, 
or a great chain of white beads about their necks. 

At Captain Smith's entrance before the king all the people gave 
a great shout. The queen was appointed to bring him water to 
wash his hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, 
instead of a towel, on which to dry them. Having feasted him 
after the best barbarous manner they could, a long consultation 
was held. At last two great stones were brought before Powhatan. 
Then as many as could lay hands on Captain Smith dragged him 
to the stones, and laid his head on them, and were ready with 
their clubs to beat out his brains. At this instant, Pocahontas, 
the King's dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevail, got 
his head in her arms, and laid her own head upon his to save 
him from death. Thereupon the emperor was contented to 
have him live to make for him hatchets, and for Pocahontas 
bells, beads, and ornaments of copper ; for they thought him as 
good at all occupations as they were. For the king makes his 
own robes, shoes, bows, arrows, and j^ots ; and plants, hunts, or 
does anything as well as the rest. 

Two days after,'" Powhatan disguised himself in the most 

'^ Jan. 7, 1608. 



30 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

fearful manner he could, and had Captain Smith brought 
forth to a great house in the woods, and left alone there 
upon a mat by the fire. Not long after, from behind a mat that 
divided the house, was made the most doleful noise he ever 
heard : then Powhatan, more like a devil than a man, with some 
two hundred more, as black as himself, came to him and told 
him that they were now friends, and that he should presently 
go to James Town, and he wished him to send him two great 
guns and a grindstone, for which he would give him part of his 
country, and forever esteem him as his son. 

So Powhatan sent him to James Town with twelve guides. That 
night they quartered '' in the woods, and he still expected (as he 
had during the long time of his imprisonment), notwithstanding 
all their feasting, to be put to one death or another. But Al- 
mighty God had mollified '^ the hearts of those stern barbarians 
with compassion. The next morning betimes they came to the 
fort, where Smith, having used the savages with what kindness 
he could, showed Powhatan^s trusty servant two cannons and a 
millstone to carry to Powhatan. They found them somewhat 
too heavy ; but when the Indians saw him discharge the cannon 
loaded with stones, among the boughs of a great tree loaded with 
icicles, the ice and branches came tumbling down so, the poor 
savages ran away half dead with fear. But at last we regained 
some conference with them, and gave them such toys, and sent to 
Powhatan, his women and children, such presents as fully con- 
tented them. 

Now every once in four or five days, Pocahontas, with her at- 
tendants, brought Captain Smith enough provisions to save 
many of their lives. 

Thus from numb death our good God sent relief. 
The sweet assuager of all other grief. 

Captain Smithes narrative of the plenty he had seen, and of the 
state and bounty of Powhatan (which till that time was un- 
known), so revived their dead spirits (especially the story of the 

J ' Quartered . —Meaning f \ ^- MpUlfied. ^Meaning f 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



31 



love of Pocahontas), that all fear was abandoned. Thus you may 
see what difficulties still hindered any good endeavor, yet you 
see by what strange means God hath still delivered it.'' 

Now whether it would have been better for Captain Smith 
to have accepted any of those several projects, to have aban- 
doned the country, with some ten or twelve of them, who were 
called the better sort, and to have left Master Hunt, our preach- 
er; Master Anthony Gosnold, a most honest, worthy, and indus- 
trious gentleman ; Master Thomas Wotton, and some twenty- 
seven others of his countrymen, to the fury of the savages, 
famine, and all manner of mischiefs and inconveniences (for 
they were but forty in all, to keep possession of this large coun- 
try) ; or starve himself with them for company, or by venturing 
abroad to make them j^rovision, or by his opposition to preserve 
the action, and save all their lives, — I leave to the censure of all 
honest men to consider. 



CAPTAIN SMITH'S ACCOUNT OF THE INDIANS. 
Of Their Customs. 
WiTHiiq" sixty miles of Jamestown there are about five thou- 
sand people, but of able men fit for war there are scarce fifteen 
hundred. There is a far greater number of women and children 
than of men. To support so many together, they have yet no 
means, because they derive so small a benefit' from their land, 
be it ever so fertile. Six or saven hundred have been the most 
that have been seen together. The people differ very much in 
stature, and especially in language. Some are very great, others 
very little; but generally tall and straight, of a comely propor- 
tion, and of a brown color when they are of age, but white when 
they are born. Their hair is generally black, and but few have 
any beard. The men shave one half of their hair, and wear the 



'^ It. — Refers to the colony and 
the preservation of their lives. 
'Benefit. — The cultivation of the 



soil by the Indians was of a most 
primitive character, and little calcu- 
lated to result in large crops. 



32 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



other half long. For barbers they have the women^ who with 
two shells will grate away the hair, in any fashion they please. 
The hair of the women is cut in many fashions suitable to their 
years, but some i3art always remains long. 

They are very strong, of an able body, and full of agility; able 
to endure lying in the woods under a tree by the fire in the worst 
of winter, or in the weeds and grasses in ambuscade""' in summer. 
They are treacherous in everything, except where fear constrains 
them; crafty, timorous, quick of apprehension, and very ingenu- 
ous.^ Some are of fearful disposition, some are bold, most are 
cautious, all are savage, and generally covetous of copper, beads, 
and such like trinkets. They are soon moved to anger, and so 
ipalicious that they seldom forget an injury. They seldom steal 
far©in«nie' another, lest their conjurers* should reveal it, and 
tiheyl'sliouki be pursued and punished. Their women are care- 
ful not to be suspected of dishonesty without the leave of their 
husbands. 

Each household knows its own lands and gardens, and most 
live by their own labor. For their apparel they are sometimes 
covered with the skins of wild beasts, which in winter are 
dressed with the hair, but in summer without. The better sort 
use large mantles' of deer-skins. Some of these mantles are 
embroidered with white beads, some with copper, others painted 
after their manner. But the common sort have scarce enough 
to cover their nakedness, unless with grass, the leaves of trees, or 
such like. We have seen some wear mantles made of turkey 
feathers, so prettily wrought and woven with threads that 
nothing but the feathers could be discerned. They were exceed- 
ingly warm, and very handsome. 

They decorate themselves mostly with copper beads and paint. 
Some of the women have their bodies and faces tattooed" with 



- Ambuscade. — Meaning ? 

3 Ingenuous. — Free from reserve. 

■* Conjurers. — Among the Indians 
these were men who pretended to 
act by supernatural power, and to 
have the ability to foretell many 



things. As the Indians were super- 
stitious, the conjurers had great 
power over them. 

^Mantles. — Cloaks, or loose-fittins' 
garments. 

^ Tattooed. — Meaning ? 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



33 



pictures of beasts and serpents, artificially wrought into their 
flesh with black spots. In each ear they have three great holes, 
from which they hang chains, bracelets, or pieces of copper. 
Some of the men wear in those holes a small green and yellow 
colored live snake, nearly half a yard in length. Some wear on 
their heads the wing of a bird or some large feather, and a rat- 
tle,' which they take from the tail of a snake. Many have the 
whole skin of a hawk or some strange fowl stuffed, with the wings 
spread. Their heads and shoulders are painted red with the 
root of pocone bruised to powder and mixed with oil: this they 
claim will preserve them from the heat in summer and from the 
cold in winter. Many other forms of paintings they use, but he 
is the bravest that is the most monstrous to behold. 

Their buildings and habitations are for the most part by the 
rivers, or not far distant from some fresh spring. The houses 
are built, like our arbors, of small sprigs bowed and tied, and so 
closely covered with mats, or the bark of trees, that notwith- 
standing either wind, rain, or weather, they are as warm as 
stoves, but very smoky; yet at the top of the house, right over 
the fire, there is a hole through which the smoke may escape. 
They sleep on little benches of reeds covered with a mat, held 
up a foot and more from the ground by a wooden support. On 
these, round about the house, they lie one by the other near the 
fire, some covered with mats, and some with skins. There are 
from six to twenty in a house. Their houses are in the midst of 
their fields or gardens, which are small plots of ground, some 
twenty acres, some forty, and there are some larger — from one 
hundred to two hundred acres. Sometimes from two to fifty 
of these houses are together, or but a little separated by groves 
of trees. There is but little wood near their habitations, by rea- 
son of their burning it for fire, and a man may gallop a horse 
amongst these woods any way, except where the creeks or rivers 
hinder. 



''Rattle.— The extremity of the 
rattlesnake's tail is- composed of 
several horny membranous cells, 



loosely joined together, so that a 
rattling noise is produced when the 
snake shakes its tail. 



34 CAPTAIN JOHN iJMITH. 

Men, women, and children have their several names according 
to the humor of their parents. The women, they say, love their 
children very dearly. To make them hardy, they wash them in 
the rivers in the coldest mornings, and by painting and ointments 
so tan their skins, that after a year or two no weather will hurt 
them. The men pass their time in fishing, hunting, wars, and 
such manlike exercises, scorning to be seen doing any woman- 
like work. The women and children do all the work. They 
make mats, baskets, pots, mortars; pound their corn, make their 
bread, prepare their victuals, plant and gather their corn, and 
bear all kinds of burdens. 

They readily kindle their fire by rubbing a dry pointed stick, 
in a hole made in a little square piece of wood, which taking fire 
will kindle moss, leaves, or any dry thing that will quickly burn. 
In March and April they live much upon their fishing weirs;^ 
and feed on fish, turkeys, and squirrels. In May and June they 
plant their fields, and live mostly on acorns, walnuts, and fish. But 
to change their diet, some scatter in small companies, and live upon 
fish, beasts, crabs, oysters, land tortoises, strawberries, ai.d mul- 
berries. In June, July, and August, they feed upon roots, ber- 
ries, fish, and green wheat. It is strange to see ho tv their bodies 
change with their diet (even as the deer and wild beasts), for with 
the different seasons they seem fat and lean, strong and weak. 
Powhatan, their great king, and some others that are provident,^ 
roast their flesh and fish, and keep it till time of need. 

For fishing, hunting, and wars they use their bows and ar- 
rows. They bring their bows to the form of ours by scraping 
with a shell. Their arrows are made, some of straight young 
sprigs, which they head with bone two or three inches long. 
These they use to shoot at squirrels on trees. Another sort of 
arrow is made of reeds. These are pierced with wood headed 
with splinters of crystal or some sharp stone, the spurs of a 
turkey, or the bill of some bird. For a knife they use the splin- 
ter of a reed to cut their feathers in form. With this knife they 

8 Weirs. — Fences or inclosures made of twigs and the branches of trees, 
and placed in streams to catch fish, ^ Provident. — Meaning f 



CAPTAIX JOHN SMITH. 



35 



will joint a deer or any beast, shape their shoes, buskins/" and 
mantles. To make the notch of their arrows they have the 
tooth of a boar set in a stick. The arrow-head they quickly 
make with a little bone, or with any splint of a_ stone, or glass 
in the form of a heart. With the sinews of deer and the tops 
of deers' horns boiled to a jelly they make a glue that will not 
dissolve in cold water, and with this they glue the head to the 
end of their arrows. 

For their wars they use targets" that are round and made of 
the bark of trees, and wear a sword of wood at their backs, but 
oftentimes they use the horns of a deer, put through a piece of 
wood in the form of a pickaxe for swords. Some have a long 
stone sharpened at both ends and used in the same manner. 
This they were wont to use for hatchets also, but now by trading 
they have plenty of iron. Such are their chief instruments and 
arms. They fish much in boats, which they make of one tree 
by burning and scratching away the coals with stones and shells 
till they have made it in the form of a trough. Some of them 
are an ell deep, '^ forty or fifty feet in length, and will bear forty 
men. But the most ordinary are smaller, and will bear ten, 
twenty, or thirty men. Instead of oars they use paddles and 
sticks, with which they will row faster than we can our barges. 

Betwixt their hands and thighs their women spin the bark 
of trees, deer sinews, or a kind of grass, into thread, which they 
make very even. This thread serves for many uses about 
their houses and apparel. They also make nets and lines of it 
for fishing. Their hooks are either of bone, in the form of a 
crooked pin or fish-hook, or of the splinter of a bone tied to a 
little stick. At the end of the line they tie on the bait. 

They use also long arrows*^ tied to a line wherewith they shoot 
at fish in the rivers, but they of Accawmack'^ use staves like jav- 
elins'^ headed with bone. With these they dart fish swimming in 



'^ 'Rnikvaz.— Meaning ? 

" Targets. — Shields. 

^-'EU deep. — How many inches? 

J3j,Qiig arrows.— Spears. 



^^ Accawmack. — A territory on the 
E. shore of Chesapeake Bay, near 
Cape Charles. 

'^ Javelins, — Harpooug. 



36 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

the water. They have also many artificial weirs in which they 
get abundance of fish. In their hunting and fishing they take 
the greatest pains; and as it is their ordinary exercise from in- 
fancy, they esteem it a pleasure, and are very proud to be expert 
in it. By their continual ranging and travel they know all the 
advantages and places most frequented with deer, beasts, fish, 
fowl, roots, and berries. In tlieir hunts they leave their habi- 
tations, and forming themselves into companies, go with their 
families to the most desert places, where they spend their time 
in hunting and .fowling np the mountains, or by the heads of the 
rivers, where there is plenty of game. For betwixt the rivers 
the ground is so narrow, that little game comes there which they 
do not devour. It is a marvel tliat they can so accurately pass 
three or four days' journey through these deserts without habita- 
tion. Their hunting houses are like unto arbors covered with 
mats. 

The women follow after them, with corn, acorns, mortars, 
and all the baggage they use. When they come to the place of 
exercise, every man does his best to show his dexterity, for by 
excelling in those qualities they get their wives. They will 
shoot forty yards level, or very near the mark, and one hundred 
and twenty yards is their best at random. In their hunts in the 
desert they commonly go two or three hundred together. Hav- 
ing found the deer, they surround them with many fires, and be- 
twixt the fires they place themselves. Some take their stand in 
the midst. They chase the deer, thus frightened by the fires 
and the voices, so long within the circle that they often kill 
six, eight, ten, or fifteen at a hunting. They also drive them 
onto some narrow point of land and force them into the river, 
where with their boats they have ambuscades to kill them. 
When they have shot a deer by land, they track it like blood- 
hounds by the blood, and so overtake it. Hares, partridges, 
turkeys, fat or lean, young or old, they devour all they can 
catch. In one of these huntings they found Captain Smith en- 
gaged in the discovery of the head of the Chickahominy river, 
where the^y slew his men and took him prisoner in a bogmire. 



CAPTAm JOHN SMITH. 37 

It was there that he saw those exercises, and gathered these ob- 
servations. 

One savage hunting alone uses the skin of a deer slit on one 
side, and so put on his arm that his hand comes to the head 
which is stuffed; and the horns, head, eyes, ears, and every part 
is artificially counterfeited as perfectly as he can devise. Thus 
shrouding his body in the skin, by stalking'' he approaches the 
deer, creeping on the ground from one tree to another. If the 
deer chances to suspect danger or stands to gaze, he turns the 
head with his hand to appear like a deer, also gazing and licking 
himself. So watching his best advantage to approach, he shoots 
him, and chases him by the marks of his blood till he gets 
him. 

When they intend any wars the chiefs usually have the advice 
of their priests and conjurers, and their allies and ancient friends; 
but the priests chiefly determine their resolution. They aj^point 
some muscular fellow captain over each nation. They seldom 
make war for land or goods, but for women and children, and es- 
pecially for revenge. They have many enemies in all the west- 
ern countries beyond the mountains and the heads of the 
rivers. 

The Powhatans are constrained sometimes to fight against all 
their enemies. Their chief attempts are to capture by strata- 
gem, treachery/' or surprises. They do not put women and 
children captives to death, but keep them. 

They have a method in war, and for our pleasure they showed 
it to us. Having painted and disguised themselves in the fierc- 
est manner they could devise, they divided themselves into two 
companies, with nearly a hundred in a company — the one com- 
pany called Monacans, the other Powhatans. Each army had 
its captain. These as enemies took their stand a musket shot 
from one another, ranged themselves fifteen abreast, and in 



'^stalking. — Walking softly and I of disguise very near to game in 
warily so as to approach under cover I order to shoot it. 

I '' Stratagem, treachery.— 3/^7? z??^'? 



^g CAPTAiiY JOHN SMITH. 

ranks four or five yards apart ; not in file, but with openings 
between their files, so that the rear could shoot as conveni- 
ently as the front. Having thus pitched the fields, a messen- 
ger from each part went with these conditions : that the fugitives 
of the vanquished, upon their submission in two days after, 
should live, but their wives and children should be prize for the 
conquerors. 

The messengers no sooner returned than the companies ap- 
proached in order. On each rank a sergeant, and in the rear an 
officer for lieutenant, all duly keeping their orders, yet leaping 
and singing after their accustomed manner in wars. Upon the 
first flight of arrows they gave most horrible shouts and screeches. 
When they had spent their arrows they came together, charging 
and retiring, every rank following tlie other. As they got a 
chance they caught their enemy by the hair of the head, and 
down he came. The victor with his wooden sword seemed to 
beat out his enemy^s brains, and yet the moment it was possible 
he crept to the rear to maintain the skirmish. 

The Monacans decreasing, the Powhatans charged upon them 
in the form of a half-moon ; they, unwilling to be enclosed, fled 
all in a troop to their ambuscades, on which they very cunning- 
ly led the Powhatans. The Monacans dispersed themselves 
among the fresh men hidden in ambush, whereupon the Powhat- 
ans retired with all speed. The Monacans seeing this, took ad- 
vantage to retire again, and so each company returned to its own 
quarters. All their actions, voices, and gestures, both in charg- 
ing and retreating, were so strained to the height of their qual- 
ity and nature, that the strangeness of the scene made it seem 
very delightful. For music they use a thick cane, on which 
they pipe as on a recorder ;" but for their wars they have a great 
deep platter of wood, Avhich they cover with a skin, at each cor- 
ner of which they tie a walnut ; and these meeting at the back 
(of this platter) are twisted together with a small rope till the 
skin is so taut ^* and stilf, that they may beat upon it as a drum. 

'* Recorder. — An antique musical instrument, somewhat resembling a 
flute or flageolet, "> TaxX.— Meaning ? 



CAlTAtN JQM^ SMTtt. 39 

But their chief instruments are rattles made of small gourds or 
pumpkin shells. These mingled with their voices, sometimes 
twenty or thirty together, make such a terrible noise as would 
rather affright than delight a man. 

If any great commander arrives at the habitation, they spread 
a mat, as the Turks do a carpet, for him to sit upon. Upon 
another right opposite they seat themselves Then all with a 
loud voice of shouting bid him welcome. After this two or more 
of their chief men make an oration, testifying their love. This 
they do with such vehemence and such great passion, that they 
sweat till they drop, and are so out of breath they can scarcely 
speak. A man would take them to be exceedingly angry or 
stark mad. 

They trade for copper, beads, and such like, for which 
they give such commodities as they have — as skins, fowl, fish, 
flesh, and their country corn. But their victuals are their 
chief riches. Every spring they make themselves sick with 
drinking the juice of a root mixed with water, whereof they 
take so great a quantity, that they scarcely recover their former 
health in three or four days. They have many professed physi- 
cians, who with their charms and rattles, with an infernal row 
of words and actions, will seem to cure their inward grief. 
With a preparation of roots they ordinarily heal green wounds ; 
but to scarify^" a swelling or make incision their best instru- 
ments are some splinted stone. They thought so much of our 
surgeons, that they believed any of their plasters would heal 
any hurt. 

2. Of their Religion". 

There is in Virginia no place yet discovered so savage that the 
natives have not a religion. 

All things that could do them injury beyond their prevention, 
as the fire, water, lightning, thunder, our ordnance pieces, and 
horses, they adore with their kind of divine worship. But the 

■■'^Scarify, — To make small incisions so as to draw blood. 



4:0 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

chief divinity they worship is the clevih Him they call Oke/^ and 
serve him more witli fear than love. They say they have con- 
ference with him, and fashion themselves as near to his shape as 
they can imagine. In their temples they have his image carved, 
and then painted and adorned with chains, cop23er, and beads ; 
and near by him is commonly the sepulcher of their kings. 

When their kings die their bodies are first hung upon hurdles 
till they are very dry. About the most of their joints and neck 
they hang bracelets or chains of copper, pearl, and such things 
as they used to wear. Then they wrap the bodies very care- 
fully in white skins, and so roll them in mats for their winding 
sheets. In the tomb, which is an arch made of mats, they lay 
them in order. What remains of the wealth of their kings 
they set at their feet in baskets. These temples and bodies are 
kept by the priests. For their ordinary form of burial, they dig 
a deep hole in the earth with sharp stakes ; and the bodies being 
wrapped in skins and mats, with their jewels, they lay them upon 
sticks in the ground, and cover them with earth. The burial 
ended, all the women having their faces painted with black coal 
and oil, sit twenty-four hours in the houses mourning, lament- 
ing by turns, and with such yelling and howling as may express 
their great passion. 

In every territory are a temple and several priests. Their 
principal temple or place of superstition is upon the top of cer- 
tain red sandy hills in the woods, where are three great houses, 
filled with images of their kings and the tombs of their ances- 
tors. These houses are nearly sixty feet in length, built like an 
arbor. They consider this place so holy, that none but the 
priests and kings dare come into the houses : nor do the savages 
dare go up the river by it in boats, unless they solemnly cast 
some piece of copper, white beads, or pocones into the river, for 
fear their Oke should be offended and be revenged. In this 
place commonly seven priests live. The chief differs from the 

■^' Oke. — The chief divinity, or evil spirit, worshiped among the Indi- 
ans of every nation. 



CAPTAIN JOHN HMITH. 41 

rest in his ornaments ; but inferior priests could hardly be known 
from the common people, except for the many holes in their ears 
to hang their jewels. 

The ornaments of the chief priests are certain attires for his 
head made in this manner. They take a dozen or more snake- 
skins, and stuff them with moss, together with many weasel and 
other skins. These they tie by the tails, so that all meet on the 
top of the head, like a great tassel. Round about this tassel is 
a crown of feathers ; and the skins hang round about the head 
and shoulders, in a manner covering the face. The faces of all 
their priests are painted as ugly as they can devise. Every one 
has a rattle in his hands. Their devotion was mostly in songs, 
which the chief priest begins, and the rest follow him. Some- 
times he makes invocations with broken sentences, by starts, 
and strange passions, and at every pause the rest give a short 
groan. 

It could not be perceived that they keep any day more holy 
than another ; except only in case of some great distress, of 
want, fear of enemies, times of triumph, and gathering together 
of fruits, when all the men, women, and children come together 
to solemnities. The manner of their devotion is sometimes to 
make a great fire in the house or fields, and for all to sing or 
dance about it, with rattles and shouts together, for four or five 
hours. Sometimes they set a man in the midst, and dance and 
sing about him, he all the while claj^ping his hands as if he 
would keep time. And after their songs and dancings end, they 
go to their feasts. They have also divers conjurations. One 
they made when Captain Smith was their prisoner, in order to 
know, as they reported to him, if any more of his countrymen 
would arrive there, and what he there intended. The manner 
of it was thus : 

First they made a fire in a house. About this fire sat seven 
priests, and he by them. They then made a circle of meal about 
the fire ; and that done, the chief priest, attired as is above ex- 
pressed, began to shake his rattle, and the rest followed him in a 
song. At the end of the song he laid down three to five grains 



42 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

of wheat, and so continued his songs by the grains, till three 
times they encircled the fire. Then they divided the grains into 
certain numbers with little sticks, laying down at the end of every 
song a little stick. In this manner they sat eight, ten, or twelve 
hours without ceasing, and with such strange stretching of their 
arms, and violent passion and gestures, as might, they so con- 
jured, well seem strange to him, who every hour expected his 
end." They did not eat any meat till late in the evening, when 
they had finished their work ; and then they feasted with much 
mirth. For three or four days they continued this ceremony. 

They have also certain altar stones ; but these stand away 
from their temples, some by their houses, others in the woods 
and wilderness. Upon these they offer blood, deer suet, and to- 
bacco. This they do when they return from wars, from hunt- 
ing, and upon many other occasions. They have also another 
superstition that they use in storms, when the waters are rough 
in the rivers and on the sea-coasts. Their conjurers run to the 
water^s side, or passing in their boats, after many loud outcries 
and invocations, they cast tobacco, copper, pocones, and such 
trash into the water, to pacify that god whom they think to be 
very angry. 

Before eating their meals, the better sort will take the first 
bit and cast it into the fire — which is all the grace they are 
known to use. 

In some part of the country they have yearly a sacrifice of 
children. Such a one was some ten miles from Jamestown, and 
thus performed : 

Fifteen of the handsomest young boys, between ten and fifteen 
years of age, were painted white. Having brought them forth, 
the people spent the forenoon in dancing and singing about 
them. In the afternoon they put the children at the root of a 
tree. All the men stood in a guard by them, every one having 
in his hand a bastinado" made of reeds bound together. They 
formed a lane, through which there were appointed five young 

2- Expected his end.— ilfea«^X9.^ | ^^ gagtinado. — A cudgel. 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. ' 43 

men to fetch these children. So every one of the five went 
through the guard to fetch a child, each after the other in turo, 
the guard fearlessly beating them with their bastinadoes,, and 
they patiently enduring it, defending the children with their 
naked bodies from the unmerciful blows ; and so the children es- 
caped. All this time tlie women wept and cried out passionately, 
and provided mats, skins, moss, and dry wood, as things fitting 
their children's funerals. 

After the children had thus passed, the guard tore down 
branches and boughs with sucli violence, that they rent the 
body of the tree, and made wreaths for their heads, or bedecked 
their hair with the leaves. What else was d*one with the chil- 
dren was not seen, but they were all cast on a heap in a valley, 
as if dead ; and then they made a great feast for all the com- 
pany. Being asked the meaning of this sacrifice, they answered 
that the children were not all dead, but only that the Oke or 
devil did suck the blood from the left breast of those who 
chanced to be his by lot, till they were dead. But the rest were 
kept in the wilderness by the young men till nine months were 
expired, during which time they must not converse with any.; 
and of these were made their priests and conjurers. 

This sacrifice they held to be so necessary, that if they should 
omit it, their Oke and all their other gods would let them have 
no deer, turkeys, corn, nor fish ; and besides, he would make 
great slaughter amongst them. They think that when their 
priests are dead they go beyond the mountains toward the set- 
ting of the sun, and ever remain there in form of their Oke, 
with their heads, painted with oil and pocones, finely trimmed 
with feathers, and having beads, hatchets, copper, and tobacco, 
and doing nothing but dancing and singing with all their pre- 
decessors. But the common people they suppose do not live 
after death. 

Many of us used our best endeavors to divert them from this 
blind idolatry, and though we could not prevail upon them to 
forsake their false gods, yet this they did believe, that our God 
as much exceeded theirs, as our guns did their bows and arrows \ 



44: 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



and many times they sent men with presents to the President 
at Jamestown, entreating him to pray to his God for rain, for 
their gods would not send them any. And in this lamentable 
ignorance do these poor souls sacrifice themselves to the devil, 
not knowing their Creator. 



3. Of theik Goyerxmeitt. 



Although the Indians are very barbarous, yet they have 
amongst them such a government that their magistrates keep 
their people in due subjection, and in that excel many places 
that would be counted very civil. The form of their common- 
wealth'^* is a monarchical government. One as emperor ruleth 
over many kings or governors. Their chief ruler is called Pow- 
hatan," and takes his name from the principal place of dwelling. 
Some countries he has which were his ancestors, and have come 
unto him by inheritance. All the rest of his territories are re- 
ported to have been his several conquests. 

In all his ancient inheritance he has houses built like arbors 
— some thirty, some forty, yards long; and at every house provi- 
sion for his entertainment. For the greater part of the time he 
resided about fourteen miles from Jamestown, on the Pamaunke^^ 
river. But he took so little pleasure in our near neighborhood, 
that in January, 1609, he removed to a place in the deserts 
at the head of the Chickahominy" river. He is a tall, well- 
proportioned man, with a sour look; his head somewhat gray, 
his beard so thin that it seems none at all. His age, near sixty; 
and a body very able and hardy to endure any labor. About his 
person ordinarily attends a guard of forty or fifty of the tallest 
men his country doth afford. Every night upon the four quar- 
ters of his house are four sentinels, standing from each other an 



'^"^ Commonwealth. — Meaning ? 

^^ Powhatan.— This was the official 
name of the chief ruler. His fam- 
ily name was Wahuusonacoke. 



** Pamaunke — York River. 
^^ Chickahominy. — Whei'e situat- 
ed? 



OAPTAIN JOHN SMtTS. 45 

arrow's flight ; and at every half-hour one from the corps 
calls aloud, and every sentinel answers from his stand. If any 
fail, they presently send forth an officer, who beats him ex- 
tremely. 

A mile from Orapakes^' in a thicket of wood, Powhatan hath a 
house, in which he keej^s his treasure of skins, copper, pearl, 
and beads, which he stores up against the time of his death and 
burial. Here also is his store of red paint for ointment, and his 
bows and arrows. This house is tifty or sixty yards in length, 
frequented only by priests. At the four corners of this house 
stand four images, as sentinels, — one of a dragon, another a bear, 
the third like a leopard, and the fourth like a giant — all made 
according to their best workmanshi23. When he dineth or sup- 
peth, one of the women, before and after meat, bringeth him 
water in a wooden platter to wash his hands. Another waiteth 
with a bunch of feathers instead of a towel to wipe them. 

Ilis kingdom does' not descend to his sons or children, but 
first to his brothers, whereof he hath three, and after their de- 
cease to his sisters. First to the eldest sister, then to the rest; 
and after them to the heirs male and female of the eldest sister; 
but never to the heirs of the male. Neither he nor any of his 
people understand any letters whereby to write or read; the only 
law whereby he ruleth is custom. Yet, when he listeth, his 
will is a law and must be obeyed. They esteem him not only as 
a king, but as half a god. His inferior kings rule by custom, 
and have power of life or death at their command. 

They all know their several lands and habitations, and limits 
to fish, fowl, or hunt in. They all pay tribute to Powhatan of 
skins, beads, copper, pearl, deer, turkeys, wild beasts, and corn. 
What he commandeth, they dare not disobey in the least thing. 
It is strange to see with what great fear and adoration all these 
people do obey this Powhatan. At his feet they present what- 
soever he commandeth, and at the least frown of his brow their 



28 Orapakes. — One of the residences of the Emperor Powhatan, about 
13 miles east of the falls at Richmond. 



46 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

great spirits will tremble witli fear; and no wonder^ for he is very 
terrible and tyrannous in punishing such as offend him. Their 
ordinary punishment is to beat a culprit with cudgels. AVe have 
seen a man kneeling, and at Powhatan's command two men 
have beat him on the bare skin till he hath fallen senseless in a 
swoon, and yet never cried or complained. 

In the year 1608 Powhatan surprised his near neighbors and 
subjects. The occasion was to us unknown, but the manner 
was thus: First he sent some of his men as if to lodge amongst 
them that night, then the ambuscades environed all their houses, 
and at the hour appointed they all fell to the spoil: twenty-four 
men they slew; the long hair of one side of their heads with the 
skin, cut off with shells or reeds, they brought away. They sur- 
prised also the women and the children, and the Werowance.^^ 
All these they presented to Powhatan. The Werowance, women 
and children became his prisoners, and do him service. The 
locks of hair he hanged on a line between two trees. And thus 
he made ostentation as of a great triumph, showing them to the 
Englishmen that then came to him at his appointment. They 
expected provision; he expected to betray them, and supposed he 
had conquered them by this spectacle of his terrible cruelty. 



VI. 
CAPTAIN SMITH MADE PRESIDENT. 

1608. 

The Arrival of the Second Supply. — Coron"Ation of 

poavhatait. 

On the tenth of September, 1608, by the election of the Coun- 
cil and request of the Company, Captain Smith received the 

29 Werowance. — The king, or cliief , of an Indian tribe. 



CAPTAIN JOHlf SMITH. 



it 



letters patent/ and took the place of President^ which till then 
he would by no means accept, though he was often importuned 
to do so. 

Now the building of Ratcliff^s palace'' was discontinued as a 
thing needless ; the church was repaired ; the store-house pro- 
vided with a new roof, and buildings prepared for the supplies 
we expected; the fort reduced to a pentagonal form ; the order 
of the watch renewed; the squadrons (each setting of the watch) 
trained ; every Saturday the whole company exercised on the 
plain by the west bulwark, prepared for that purpose, where 
sometimes more than a hundred savages would stand in amaze- 
ment to behold how a file of our men would batter a tree, against 
which was set a mark to shoot at. The boats were trimmed for 
trade, ^ and, being sent out with Lieut. 
Percy, on their journey encountered the 
second supply, Uhat brought them back 
to discover the country of Monacan. " 

How or why Captain Newport ob- 
tained such a private commission as 
not to return without a lamp of gold, 
a certainty of the South Sea, or one of 
the lost company ^ sent out by Sir Wal- 
ter Raleigh, I know not. 

As for the coronation of Powhatan, 
and his presents of basin and ewer, 




Sir Walter Raleigh. 



' Letters patent. — So denominated 
because they are written upon open 
sheets of parchment, with the seal of 
the sovereign or party by whom they 
were issued pendent at the bottom. 
Close letters are folded np and 
sealed on the outside. 

'^ " Ratcliff had riotously con- 
sumed the stores, and to fulfill his 
follies about building him an un- 
necessary palace in the woods, had 
brought them all to misery." 



3 Trimmed for trade. — Meaning? 

'^ The second supply. — The ships, 
with goods, under command of 
Captain Newport. 

'•> Monacan. — The country near the 
upper waters of the James River. 

« Lost company. — A colony of a 
hundred persons had been left on 
the island of Roanoke by Captain 
White, under the auspices of Sir 
Walter Raleigh, in 1587, and were 
never heard of afterwards. 



48 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

bed, clothes, and such costly novelties, they had much better 
been withheld than so ill spent; for we had his favor much bet- 
ter for only a plain piece of copper, till this stately kind of so- 
liciting made him so much overvalue himself, tliat he respected 
us not at all. As for the hiring of the Poles and Dutchmen, sent 
over with Captain Newport, to make pitch, tar, glass, mills, and 
soap Mshes, if the country had been filled with people and necessa- 
ries, it would have been well ; but to send them, and seventy more, 
without victuals, to work, was not so well advised as it should 
have been. Yet this could not have hurt us if they had been 
two hundred, for though we were then but one hundred and 
thirty, we were in want ; for we had the savages in that decorum ' 
(their harvest being newly gathered), that we feared not to get 
victuals for five hundred. 

Now there was no way to make us miserable but by neglecting 
the opportunity to make provision whilst it was to be had, which 
was done by the direction from England to perform this strange 
discovery, and a more strange coronation. To lose that time, 
spend what victuals we had, tire and starve our men, was folly. 
How or by whom such ideas were invented I know not. But we 
only accounted Captain Newport the author, who to effect these 
projects had so gilded men's hopes with great promises, that both 
Company and Council carried out his resolution. 

Of this second supply there were added to the Council one 
Captain Richard AValdo, and Captain Wynne, two ancient 
soldiers and valiant gentlemen, but ignorant of the business, 
being but newly arrived. Although Smith was President, yet 
the major part of the Council had the authority, and ruled it as 
they listed.** Captain Smith, to clear away all seeming suspic- 
ions, to prove that the savages were not so desperate as was pre- 
tended by Captain Newport, and to show how willing he was to 
assist them as much as he could, because the coronation would 
consume much time, he himself took their message to Powhat- 
an, to entreat him to come to Jamestown to receive his presents. 

' Decorum. — Meanimj? ^ Listed. — Meaning ? 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITE. 



49 



And where Captain Newport did not dare to go with less than 
one hundred and twenty, he took with him only four men. 
With these he went overland some twelve miles, and crossed the 



mean 




Pocahontas. 

who were 



Powhatan, being thirty miles off, was sent 
time Pocahontas and her women en- 
tertained Captain Smith in this man- 
ner. In a plain they made a fire, 
before which he sat upon a mat, when 
there was suddenly heard such a hideous 
noise and shrieking amongst the woods, 
that the five Englishmen betook them- 
selves to their arms, and seized on two 
or three old men near them, suppos- 
ing Powhatan with all his power had 
come to surprise them. But presently 
Pocahontas came, asking him to kill 
her if they planned any harm ; and the beholders, 
men, women, and children, satisfied the Captain there was no 
such intention. 

Presently they were presented with this antic : thirty young 
women came out of the woods, their bodies all painted, some of 
one color, some of another, but all differing. Their leader had 
a fair pair of bucko's horns on her head, and an otter skin at her 
girdle, and another at her arm, a quiver of arrows on her back, 
a bow and arrows in her hand : the next had in her hand a 
sword, another a club, another a pot-stick :" each one with her 
own device. With most fiendish shouts and cries, they rushed 
from among the trees, and cast themselves in a ring about the 
fire, singing and dancing, often falling into infernal passions, 
and solemnly again returning to sing and dance. Having spent 
nearly an hour in this masquerade, they departed as they had 
entered. When this salutation ended, the feast was set, consist- 
ing of all the savage dainties they could devise. Some attended. 



9 lot-stick. — A stick with a hook at the end. 



50 CAPTAIN JOHN HMITM. 

others sung and danced about; and wlien this mirth was ended, 
with fire-brands instead of torches they conducted us to our 
lodging. 

Powhatan came the next day. Smith delivered his message 
regarding the presents sent for him, and desired him to come to 
his father Newport to accept of them. To this the subtle 
savage thus replied : " If your king has sent me presents, I also 
am a king, and this is my land ; I will stay eight days to receive 
them. Your father is to come to me, not I to him, nor yet to 
your fort; neither will I bite at such a bait.^^ 

Many other discourses they had (yet each was content to sat- 
isfy the other with complimentary courtesies), and so Captain 
Smith returned with his answer. Upon this the presents were 
sent by water, a distance of nearly a hundred miles, and the 
captains, with fifty good soldiers, went by land. 

The next day was appointed for Powhatan ^s coronation. Then 
the presents were brought to him : his basin and ewer ; his bed 
and furniture set up ; his scarlet cloak and ajjparel, with much 
ado, put on him, but there was great trouble to make hitn kneel 
to receive his croAvn. Neither knowing the majesty and meaning 
of a crown, nor bending of the knee, he required so many persua- 
sions, examples, and instructions, as tired them all. At last he 
stooped a little, and three put the crown on his head. Then by the 
warning of a pistol the boats saluted with such a volley of shot, 
that the king started up in a horrible fear, till he saw all was well. 
Then remembering himself, to thank them for their kindness he 
sent his old moccasins and his mantle of raccoon skin to his brother. 
King James I., by Captain Newport. And so, after further 
kindness on both sides, Powhatan presented Newport with a 
heap of wheat ears, wherewith we returned to the fort. No 
sooner were we landed than the President dispersed as many as 
were able, some to make glass, others pitch and soap ashes. But 
he conducted thirty of us five miles from the fort into the 
woods, to learn to cut down trees and make clapboards. These 
hard works were strange indeed to some men of our company, 
but all these things were carried on so pleasantly, that within a 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 5l 

week they became skillful. They delighted to hear the trees 
thunder as they fell ; but the axes so oft blistered their tender 
fingers, that many times every third blow had a loud oath to 
drown the echo. As a remedy for this sin, the President devised 
to have every man^s oaths numbered, and at night for every 
oath to have a can of water poured down his sleeve. With this 
every offender was so drenched, that after that a man could scarce 
hear an oath in a week. 

Let no man think by this that the President and these gentle- 
men spent their time as common wood-hackers at felling trees 
or other like labors, or that they were pressed to it as hirelings 
or common slaves, for what they did seemed as only a pleasure 
and a recreation; yet thirty or forty such volunteers would do 
more in a day than one hundred of the rest that must be pressed 
to it by compulsion: but twenty good workmen would have been 
better than them all. 



VII. 
THE NEW CHARTER. 

1609. 

'' In England the company was not unnaturally dissatisfied 
with the results of the colony. The only return they had yet 
had was two shiploads of timber. Accordingly they determined 
to get a new charter, and to send out a fresh colony of five hun- 
dred settlers in nine ships under command of Smith's old enemy 
Captain Newport. The character of the new settlers was not 
such as to. give much hope for the future welfare of the colony. 
The colonists sailed from England in the latter end of May, but 
the admiral's (Sir Geo. Somers) ship, the Sea- Venture, witli 
one hundred and fifty men and three governors, with the letters 
patent, on board, was cast away on the Bermudas. The rest of 



52 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITE. 

tlie fleet which had been separated from the Sea-Venture in the 
storm managed to ride through, and reached the Chesapeake, 
though in a fearfully shattered condition. The Virginia govern- 
ment had been reorganized and Smith removed. 

'' The reasons for his disgrace were his ' hard dealings^ with the 
savages, and not returning the ships freighted — a bitter charge 
against a man who had derided the yellow dirt and only seized 
the corn necessary to save the life of the colony. This indica- 
tion of the state of things in Virginia, at the moment (August, 
1609), will explain what followed. Eatcliife, coming on shore 
from the ships, claimed authority in the colony as the represen- 
tative of the new rulers, who would soon arrive. Riot and con- 
fusion followed. 

'^ Smith was a man of few words, and could always be counted 
on to do what he said he would do. The term of his presidency 
had not yet expired; he was still the head of the colony, and he 
would hold to strict account those who disobeyed his orders. In 
less than three months the new colonists had conducted them- 
selves so factiously that Smith was compelled to cast several 
ringleaders into prison. Then he separated the colony into 
three parts, and planted one hundred and twenty men under 
Martin at Nansemond, and the same number under AVest near 
the site of the present city of Richmond. 

" Both of these settlements were soon in trouble, and Smith 
was compelled to visit them to quell their insurrection. Worn 
and weary with all this dissension he sailed down the river again, 
bent on finally leaving Virginia. An incident hurried his de- 
parture. On his way down the James a bag of gunpowder ex- 
ploded in his boat, ' tearing the flesh from his body and thighs 
in a most pitiful manner.^ Ilis severe wounds required treat- 
ment, and there was no one in the colony who was competent. 
An opportunity to return to England presented itself. The 
ships were about to sail, and Smith was carried on board, dele- 
gating his authority to George Percy, who consented to remain 
and act as President. 

^^Then the ships set sail, and Smith took his departure, never 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 53 

again to return to Virginia. He left near five hundred per- 
sons in the colony well supplied with arms, provisions, and 
goods for the Indian traffic. Jamestown had a fort, church, 
store-house, and about sixty dwelling-houses, with a stock of 
hogs, goats, sheep, fowls, and a few horses. At Smith's depart- 
ure, the colonists gave themselves up to riot and idleness. They 
wastefully consumed the store of provisions, killed the stock, 
traded away their arms with the natives, and presently suffered 
severely from famine. The Indians attacked them, and killed 
many. In six months there were only sixty persons remaining. 
At this critical time Gates and Somers arrived from the Bermu- 
das. Disheartened by the hopeless condition of the colony, they 
resolved to sail for England; but fortunately, as they were leav- 
ing the river. Lord Delaware appeared with three ships, well 
supplied. The colony was resettled, and, from that time, pros- 
pered." 



VIII. 

MARRIAGE OF POCAHONTAS. 

1613. 

WRITTEN" BY E. HARRIS AXD JOHN" SMITH. 

It being April, and time to prepare our ground and to plan 
our corn, we returned to Jamestown. 

Long before this. Master John Rolfe, an honest gentleman, 
and of good behavior, had been in love with Pocahontas and she 
with him. I' immediately made this known to Sir Thomas Dale 
by a letter from Rolfe, wherein he entreated Dale's advice. Sir 
Thomas Dale well approved the idea. The news of the intended 
marriage soon came to the knowledge of Powhatan, and proved 

^ I. The writer of this account was Raphe Hamor ; came to Virginia 
in 1610, and became secretary of the Council. 



54 CAPTAIN JOHN S3fITff. 

acceptable to him, as appeared by his ready consent; for within 
ten days he sent an old uncle of Pocahontas and two of his sons, 
to see the manner of the marriage, and as his deputy, to do what 
they were requested for the confirmation there. This was ac- 
cordingly done about the first of April (1613), and ever since we 
have had friendly trade and commerce, as well with Powhatan 
himself, as all his subjects. 

In the little rudely-constructed church at Jamestown, before 
the font, which was hewn out of the trunk of a tree, the Princess 
Pocahontas openly renounced her country's idolatry and was 
baptized, and given the name of Rebecca. 

LETTER FROM CAPTAIJ^ J0H:N^ SMITH. 1616. 

To the Most High and Virtuous Princess, Queen Anne of Great 

Britain. 

Most admired Queen: The love I bear my God, my king, 
and country, has so often encouraged me in the worst of ex- 
treme dangers, that now honesty constrains me to present your 
Majesty this short discourse. If ingratitude be a deadly poison 
to all honest virtues, I should be guilty of that crime if I 
omitted any means to be thankful. 

Some ten years ago, in Virginia, where I was taken prisoner 
by the power of Powhatan their chief king, I received from this 
great savage exceeding great courtesy, and especially from his 
son, the manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit I ever saw in a savage, 
and from his sister Pocahontas, the king's most dear and well- 
beloved daughter, being but a child of twelve or thirteen years 
of age, whose compassionate, pitiful heart in my desperate condi- 
tion, gave me much cause to respect her. Although the first 
Christian this proud king and his grim attendants ever saw, and 
enthralled in their barbarous power, notwithstanding all their 
threats, I cannot say I felt the least want that was in the power 
of those my mortal foes to prevent. After I had been fatted 
some six weeks among those savage courtiers, she, at the min- 
ute of my execution, hazarded the beating out of her own brains 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 55 

to save mine; and not only that, but she so prevailed with her 
father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown; where I found 
about thirty-eight miserable, poor, and sick creatures, to keep 
possession of all those large territories of Virginia. Such was 
the weakness of this poor Commonwealth, that had the savages 
not fed us, we should have starved. And this relief, most gra- 
cious Queen, was commonly brought us by this lady Pocahontas. 

Notwithstanding all these events, when inconstant fortune 
turned our peace to war, this tender maid dared to visit us, and 
oft appeased our wrangles and supplied our wants. Whether it 
was the policy of her father thus to employ her, or the ordinance 
of God thus to make her His instrument, or her extraordinary 
affection to our nation, I know not; but of this I am sure: when 
Powhatan, with the utmost of his policy and power, sought 
to surprise me at Werowocomoco, the dark night could not pre- 
vent her from coming through the dangerous woods, and, with 
moist eyes giving me intelligence, and advice how to escape his 
fury. Had he known this, he surely would have slain her. 
With her wild train she has freely frequented Jamestown, as her 
father's habitation; and during the time of two or three years 
she, next to God, was the instrument to preserve this Colony 
from death, famine, and utter confusion; and if Virginia in 
those times had once been dissolved, it might have remained to 
this day as it was at our first arrival. 

Since then this business has been turned and varied by many 
accidents from what I left it on October 4, 1609: It is most cer- 
tain that during a long and most troublesome war betwixt her 
father and our Colony, after my departure, she was not heard of. 
About two years after"* she herself was taken prisoner and de- 
tained two years. The Colony by that means was relieved, 
peace concluded, and at last, rejecting her barbarous condition, 
she was married to an English gentleman with whom she is now 
in England; the first Christian ever of that nation, the first Vir- 
ginian who ever spoke English. 

2 April, 1613. 



56 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

Thus, most gracious lady, I have related to your Majesty what 
our approved histories will give you in detail, at your best leis- 
ure, as done in the time of your Majesty^s life; and however this 
might be presented you from a more worthy pen, it cannot come 
from a more honest heart. I never yet begged anything from 
the state, and it is my w ant of ability, and her exceeding desert, 
your birth, means, and authority, her birth, virtue, want, and 
simplicity, that make me thus bold to humbly beseech your Maj- 
esty to take this knowledge regarding her, even though it be 
from one so unworthy to be the reporter, as myself. Her hus- 
band's estate can not make her fit to attend your Majesty. The 
most and least I can do is to tell you this, because no one has so 
often tried it as I have and still more because she is of so great a 
spirit that if she should not be well received her present love to 
us and Christianity might turn into such scorn and fury as to 
divert all this good to the worst of evil. On the other hand, if so 
great a Queen should do her some unexpected honor in return 
for her kindness to your servants and subjects it would so de- 
light her as to endear her dearest blood to effect what your 
Majesty and all the king's honest subjects most earnestly desire. 

Being about this time preparing to sail for New England, I 
could not stay to do her the service which I desired, and which 
she well deserved; but hearing that she was at Branford," with 
some of my friends, I went to see her. After a modest saluta- 
tion, without a word she turned about and hid her face, as if 
displeased, and in that humor her husband, with others, left her 
for two or three hours, and I repented for having written that 
she could speak English. But not long after she began to talk, 
and remembered me well and what courtesies she had done me: 
*^ You did promise Powhatan,^' she said, ^Hhat what was yours 
should be his, and he the like to you. You called him father, 
being a stranger in his land, and by the same reason so must I 
call you. I dared not allow of that title because she was a king's 

3 Branford. — Brentford, not far from London. 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 57 

daughter. With a well-set countenance she said: ^'^Were you 
not afraid to come into my father^s country and cause fear in 
him and all his people, and do you now fear to have me call you 
father? I tell you, then, I will, and you shall call me child; and 
so I will be forever and ever your countryman. They always 
told us you were dead, and I did not know otherwise until I 
came to Plymouth;' yet Powhatan gave orders to seek you, and 
to know the truth, because your countrymen will lie much/' 

One of Powhatan's council was considered a clever fellow and 
the king purposely sent him, as they say, to count the people 
here, and to inform him about us and our state. Arriving at 
Plymouth, according to directions, he got a long stick and, by 
cutting notches in it, expected to keep the number of all the 
men he could see, but he was quickly weary of that task. Com- 
ing to London, where by chance I met him, we renewed our ac- 
quaintance. Many were desirous to hear him and see his beha- 
vior. He said Powhatan did bid him find me out that I might 
show him our God, the king, queen, and prince, about whom I 
had told them so much. Concerning God, I told them what I 
could; the king I heard he had seen, and the rest he should see 
when he wished. He denied ever to have seen the king, till by 
circumstances he was satisfied that he had; then he replied very 
sadly: ^^ You gave Powhatan a white dog, which Powhatan fed 
as well as he fed himself; but your king gave me nothing, and I 
am better than your white dog.'' 

The small time I stayed in London, courtiers and otherp of my 
acquaintances, went with me to see Pocahontas and generally 
concluded that God had a great hand in her conversion, and 
that they had seen many English ladies worse favored, propor- 
tioned, and behaviored. As I have since heard, it pleased both 
the king and queen's majesty to esteem her honorably. Accom- 
panied with that honorable lady, the Lady Delaware, and that 
honorable lord, her husband, and other persons of good quality, 

"* Plymouth. —England. 



58 CAFTAIN JOim SMITH. 

both publicly, at the masks, ^ and otherwise, to her great satisfac- 
tion and content, which doubtless she would have deserved, if 
she had lived to arrive in Virginia. Pocahontas died suddenly 
at Gravesend, in March, 1617, just as she was on the point of 
sailing for Virginia. The church of St. George at Gravesend, 
where she was buried, was burned down in 1727. As she was 
probably born in 1595, she was only twenty-two when she died. 
Pocahontas, signifying, it is said, ^^ Bright Stream between two 
Hills,^^ was her household name, and she was Powhatan^s *' dear- 
est daughter." 



IX. 

CAPTAIN SMITH'S ANSWERS TO THE SEVEN QUESTIONS 
OF HIS COMPANY. 

Out of these observations it pleased his Majesty's Commission- 
ers for the reformation of Virginia, to desire my answer to these 
seven questions. 

Q. 1. What conceive you is the cause the plantation has pros- 
pered no better since you left it in so good a forwardness ? 

A. Idleness and carelessness brought all I did in three years, 
to nothing in six months; and of five hundred men I left, scarce 
three score remained ; and had Sir Thomas Gates not got there 
from the Bermudas, I think all would have been dead before they 
could be supplied. 

Q. 2. What conceive you is the cause that, though the 
country be good, nothing but tobacco comes from there ? 

A. The frequent changing of governors it seems causes every 
man to make use of his time, and because corn w\as stinted at two 
shillings sixpence the bushel, and tobacco at three shillings the 
pound ; and they value a man's labor worth fifty or threescore 

^ Masks. — Celebrations, entertainments, and plays performed in honor 
of Pocahontas. 



cAPTAm JOHN SMITH. 50 

pounds a year in tobacco, but in corn not worth ten pounds. Now 
make a man's labor in corn worth threescore pounds, and in tobac- 
co but ten pounds a man, then will they raise corn sufficient to 
entertain all comers, and keep their people in health to do any- 
thing ; but till then there will be little or nothing to any pur- 
pose. 

Q. 3. What conceive you to have been the cause of the mas- 
sacre, and if the savages had the use of any pieces in your time, 
when, or by whom were they taught ? 

A. The cause of the massacre was the want of martial disci- 
pline, and because, being scattered, they were not prepared to 
defend themselves against any enemy. In my time, though 
Captain Newport furnished them with swords by trade, and 
many fugitives did the like, and some pieces were got accidental- 
ly, yet I got the most of them back again ; and it was death to 
him who should show a savage the use of a gun. I understand 
that they afterwards became such good marksmen they were 
employed for fowlers and huntsmen by the English. 

Q. 4. What amount think you would have settled the govern- 
ment both for defense and planting when you left it ? 

A. Twenty thousand pounds would have hired good laborers 
and mechanics, and have furnished them with cattle and all 
necessaries ; and one hundred such would have done more than 
a thousand of such as went, though the Lord Delaware, kSir 
Ferdinando Wayman, Sir Thomas Gates, and Sir Thomas Dale 
thought to the contrary, they confessed their error. 

Q. 5. What conceive you would be the remedy and the 
cost ? 

A. The remedy is to send soldiers and all sorts of laborers and 
necessaries for them, that they may be there by next Michael- 
mas (1624). To do this well will stand you in five thousand 
pounds, but if his Majesty would lend two of his ships to trans- 
port them, less would serve ; besides the benefit of his grace to 
the action would encourage all men. 

Q, 6. What think you are the defects of the government both 
here and there ? 



QO CAPTAIN JOBir SMifB. 

A. The multiplicity of opinions here, and officers there, makes 
so many delays by questions and formalities, that as much time 
is spent in useless forms as in action. Besides, some are so de- 
sirous to employ their ships, receiving six pounds for every pas- 
senger, and three pounds for every ton of goods, at which rate a 
thousand ships can now better be procured than formerly one 
could be; that the ships are so pestered as occasions much sick- 
ness, disease, and mortality; for though all of the passengers die 
they are sure of their freight ; and then all must be satisfied 
with orations, disputations, excuses, and hopes. 

As for the letters of advice from hence, and their answers 
thence, they are so well written that men would believe there 
were no great doubt of the performance, and that all things were 
well. People here have always been much subject to this error. 
Not to believe, or not to relieve the true and poor estate of that 
colony, whose fruits were commonly spent before they were ripe, 
is nothing to them here, whose great estates are not sensible of 
the loss of their adventures, and so no notice is taken of it; but 
it is so with all men. 

As to the way they think or dispose of all things at their 
pleasure, I am sure not myself only, but a thousand others, have 
already spent the most of their estates. The most part have 
lost their lives and all, only to make way for the trial of more 
new conclusions; and he that will now risk but twelve pounds 
ten shillings shall have better respect and more favor than he 
that sixteen years ago (in 1609) risked as much. But though 
he risks five hundred pounds, and spends there never so much 
time, if he has no more and is not able to begin a family, all is 
lost by order of court. 

In the beginning it was not so ; all then went out of one 
purse, till those new devices consumed both money and purse; 
for at first there were but sixteen patentees, now more than a 
thousand ; then but thirteen counselors, now there are not less 
than a hundred. I speak not of all, for there are some both hon- 
orable and honest; but if some of the officers managed their own 
estates no better than the affairs of Virginia, they and it would 



CAPTAm JOHN SMITH. 61 

quickly fall to decay. But this is most evident ; it has caused 
few officers in England to turn bankrupts; who, for all their 
complaints, would not leave their places; but of the officers there, 
few would not like to be at home. But fewer adventurers here 
will risk any more till they see the business established, although 
there are some so wilfully improvident that they care for nothing 
but to get thither, and then if their friends be dead, or they 
come to want, they die or live but poorly for want of necessaries. 
To think the old planters can relieve them were too much non- 
sense; for who here in England is so charitable as to feed two or 
three strangers, if they have never so much, much less in Vir- 
ginia, where they are in want. Now the general complaint says 
that pride, covetousness, extortion, and oppression in a few 
that engrosses all, occasion no small mischief amongst the 
planters. 

As for the company, or those that transport them, God forbid 
that masters there should not have the same privilege over their 
servants as here; but to sell for forty, fifty, or three-score pounds, 
a servant whom the company has sent over for eight or ten 
pounds at the most, without regard to how he shall be main- 
tained with apparel, meat, drink, lodging, is odious, and the 
fruits suitable ; therefore it were better such merchants were 
made slaves themselves, than suffered any longer to use that 
trade. These are defects sufficient to bring any well-settled 
commonwealth to misery, much more Virginia. 

Q. 7. How think you it may be rectified ? 

A. If his Majesty would be pleased to annex Virginia to his 
crown, that both the governors here and there may give their ac- 
counts to you yearly, or to some that are not engaged in the 
business, that the common stock be not spent in maintaining one 
hundred men for the governor, one hundred for two deputies, 
fifty for the treasurer, five and twenty for the secretary, and more 
for the marshal and other officers who were never there and 
never invested anything ; but preferred by favor to be lords over 
them that broke the ice and beat the path, and that must teach 
them what to do. If anything happens well, it is their glory; if 



^2 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

ill the fault of the old directors, who in all dangers must endure 
the worst, yet not five hundred of them have so much as one of 
the others. 

Some course must soon be taken to maintain a garrison to 
suppress the savages, till they are able to subsist, and till his 
majesty pleases to remit his custom ; or it is to be feared they 
will lose custom and all, for this cannot be done by promises, 
hopes, counsels and countenances, but with sufficient workmen 
and means to maintain them. Yet when the foundation is laid, 
as I have said, and a commonwealth established, then they may 
be better constrained to labor there than here ; but to rectify a 
commonwealth with debauched people is impossible, and no wise 
man, that intends honestly and knows what he undertakes, 
would throw himself into such a society. For there is no 
country to pillage as the Romans found ; all you expect from 
thence must be by labor. 

For the government, I think there is as much ado about it as 
the kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland, men here imagining Vir- 
ginia, as they are, erecting as many stately offices as officers, with 
their attendants, as there are laborers in the country ; where a 
constable were as good as twenty of their captains ; and three 
hundred good soldiers and laborers better than all the rest, that 
go only to get the fruits of other men's labors by the title of an 
office. Thus they spend Michaelmas rent in Midsummer Moon, 
and would gather their harvests before they have planted their 
corn. 

As for the maintenance of the officers, the first that went 
never demanded any, but risked good sums; and it seems strange 
to me, that with the fruit of all their labor, besides the expense 
of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and such multitude^ 
of people, those same officers could not maintain themselves so 
well as the old did, beside having now such liberty to do to the 
savages what they will, which the others had not. 

I more than wonder they have not five hundred savages to 
work for them towards their general maintenance ; and as many 
more to return some content and satisfaction to the adventurers. 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 63 

who for all their care, charge and diligence, can hear and see 
nothing but complaints. It is therefore in your power to rectify 
all this, and with expedition to pass the authority to them who 
will release them, lest all be consumed before the difference is 
settled. 

Unless his Majesty undertakes it, or by act of parliament 
some small tax is granted throughout his dominions, as a 
penny upon every pol], called a head penny, two pence upon 
every chimney, or some such collection might be raised, that 
would be sufficient to give a good stock, and many servants to 
sufficient men of ability, and to transport them freely for pay- 
ing only homage to the crown of England, and such duties to the 
public good, as their estates increased, and as reason should 
require. Were this put in practice how many people, of what 
quality you please, for all those disasters would yet gladly go to 
spend their lives there, and by this means do more good in one 
year than all those petty particular undertakings will effect in 
twenty. 

For the patent the king may, if he please, rather take it from 
them that have it, than from us who had it first ; from them 
who pretend to his Majesty what great matters they would do, 
and how little we did. For anything I can conceive had we 
remained as at first, it is not likely we could have done much 
worse; but those who change governments are not without much 
charge, hazard and loss. 

If I be too plain, I humbly crave your pardon ; but you re- 
quested me, therefore I do but my duty. For my own part I 
have so much ado to mend my own, I have no leisure to look 
into any man's particular fault, but these faults in general I con- 
ceive to be true, And so I humbly rest. 

Yours to command, J, S. 



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